Sustainability through Cluster Development in the Caribbean


If you are a group of 3 or more firms willing to collaborate on a joint project, this initiative may be for you! This call for proposals aims to fund cluster initiatives that can help Caribbean firms to grow, generate employment and export to new markets.

We define clusters as 3 or more private sector firms collaborating to produce and sell a stream of new or better products/services at competitive costs on the regional or international market.

DEADLINE: October 31, 2017.


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REGIONAL POLICY DIALOGUE
TECHNOLOGY EXTENSION AND THE DIGITAL AGENDA FOR THE CARIBBEAN TAKE CENTRE STAGE.
PRESS RELEASE
Kingston, JAMAICA
- The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), along with its Compete Caribbean partners, the United Kingdom's Department for International Development, and the Caribbean Development Bank, hosted a Regional Policy Dialogue on August 23 on the topic: Technology Extension Policies in the Caribbean and a discussion in collaboration with JAMPRO on August 24, 2017 focused on A Digital Agenda for Enterprises in the Caribbean, at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel.
 
Technology extension policies help Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) adopt existing technologies, which drive innovation in terms of process improvements and product or market development in the long term.
 
With the low level of innovation in the Caribbean still a constraint to the region's economic growth, the Compete Caribbean Program conducted preliminary research to assess the supply and demand of technology extension services in the region. This study, along with the presentations during the event are available online. The dialogue explored, through a case study, the design and development of a technological extension program contextualized to the Caribbean reality and how the Compete Caribbean Program could support these instruments.
 
The presentations on the digital agenda were focused on how the blockchain technology can be used to monetize talent in the creative industries, alternative finance, and other aspects of the role innovation can play in Caribbean economic growth.
 
The policy dialogue featured technical level representatives from the IDB, CDB, the OAS, and other agencies, along with specialists in developing these types of initiatives. Representatives from 12 Caribbean governments and private sector organisations including Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, St. Vincent, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, Suriname and Grenada participated in the event.
 
Compete Caribbean provides technical assistance grants and investment funding to support productive development policies, business climate reforms, cluster initiatives and innovation in the Caribbean region.
CALL FOR APPLICATIONS EXTENDED to SEPTEMBER 15, 2017
Building Institutional Capacity for Strengthening Business Clusters

hands_teamwork_puzzle.jpg If your mandate is to foster the productivity and growth of micro, small, or medium enterprises (MSMEs), you may be interested in supporting business clusters. The purpose of clustering initiatives is to encourage collaborative actions to improve the competitiveness of a sector or industry.

Eligible Countries:
Antigua & Barbuda; Belize; Dominica; Grenada; Guyana; Jamaica; St. Kitts & Nevis; St. Lucia; St. Vincent & the Grenadines.

 
Eligible countries may access the application package here

WHAT'S HAPPENING...
APPLICATION DEADLINE: 
Thursday, SEPT 7th, 2017
WORKSHOP on Public-Private Partnerships and Concessions: Design, Implementation and Challenges

NOMINATION DEADLINE: 
Friday, SEPT 15th, 2017
OWSD-Elsevier Awards for Early-Career Women Scientists in the Developing World (selected in 2017) in Physical Sciences: Chemistry, Maths and Physics

October 17-19, 2017, Trinidad & Tobago 

This course is open to government officials in the Caribbean Countries as well as Belize and Haiti and is  aimed at strengthening the knowledge of the participants regarding Public Private Partnerships (PPPs): particularly, their design, structuring and their implementation. 




Nominations OPEN!
ONLY 2 WEEKS LEFT!

The nominee must be a female scientist (in Chemistry, Maths or Physics ), have received her PhD  within the previous 10 years and have lived and worked in a listed developing countries  during the three years immediately prior to the nomination. 

REQUEST FOR EXPRESSION OF INTEREST
Development and Implementation of a Communications Strategy for the Competitiveness Unit Suriname 
Suriname is in need of a consultant to develop a broad based communications strategy on competitiveness, productivity and innovation.

The overall objective of this consultancy is to design and implement an educational, communication and awareness campaign geared towards increasing public awareness and sensitizing key stakeholders on the processes and benefits associated with ongoing government efforts in the SUBCIP and other relevant initiatives aiming to improve the business climate and strengthening the international competitiveness of Suriname, and supporting private sector growth and development.