Tag: 2024-02-14

United States Ambassador Jessica Lapenn concluded a whirlwind visit to Belize earlier today where she met with senior members of the Briceño administration, as well as several civil society organizations.  The trip was occasioned by Belize’s recent inclusion to the Partnership for Atlantic Cooperation, an initiative established by the U.S. government in September of last year.  More commercial and shipping traffic crosses the Atlantic than any other ocean and it is home to more than half of the world’s fisheries.  The meeting with local stakeholders was with a view to conserve the ocean, recognizing its importance to our lives and future.  Belize, as the newest member, is committed to the goals of advancing a peaceful, stable, prosperous, and safe Atlantic region.  News Five sat down with Ambassador Lapenn earlier today ahead of her departure.

 

Jessica Lapenn, U.S. Ambassador

“I’ve really had a chance to meet with the stakeholders in Belize on its marine and maritime issues.  So government, civil society, also international partners.  I’ve gotten, I think, a good understanding or the start of an understanding for what’s happening in the blue space in this country.  The reason I came was because of the very welcomed decision by the Government of Belize to join the Partnership for Atlantic Cooperation.  Government announced that decision yesterday and my visit was an opportunity to talk to them about what does the partnership look like, what will it mean for Belize and what will Belize bring to the partnership.”

 

Isani Cayetano

“The Partnership for Atlantic Cooperation is a fairly new initiative.  Talk to us about that and perhaps the buy-in from other countries to be a part of this initiative.”

 

Jessica Lapenn

”So it’s very new.  The partnership was launched last September.  So it was September 2023 with thirty-two countries, and with Belize it’s now thirty-eight.  So it is a meaningful reflection of Atlantic coastal states.  Much of the states on the Atlantic are now part of this initiative.  The initiative is designed to do a few things.  First, to say that we are an Atlantic region.  The countries around the Atlantic, in the north and south, have things in common: experiences and challenges. It doesn’t mean that everyone has the same experience and we know that there are important capacity differences, but we share an ocean and the ocean is increasingly important, whether from the perspective of trade or climate.  And so, as the states on the ocean we’re going to come together to think about what we have in common and how do we want to solve our common challenges.”

According to Ambassador Lapenn, in joining PAC, Belize will adopt the Declaration on Atlantic Cooperation. She then went on to mention that Atlantic states are also linked by common challenges that threaten livelihoods and exacerbate food insecurity.

 

Jessica Lapenn, U.S. Ambassador

“There are a lot of new and different challenges, particularly in the climate space, that all of us are grappling with individually, but the truth is, none of us can solve these challenges alone.  And so, the Partnership for Atlantic Cooperation is then a platform for working across nations, across geographies, across regions and coming together to solve problems.”

 

Isani Cayetano

“It’s a brief visit.  Nonetheless, what are some of the concerns that you’ve gathered, having met with civil society partners?”

 

Jessica Lapenn

“So I’ll say first, I was really impressed with the experience and the knowledge, the commitment and track record of civil society here. My meetings with them went late and long because I just kept saying, “I want to learn more.”  And I, think that’s interestingly one of the things that’s most exciting about Belize joining the partnership is how much others will learn from Belize’s experience.  Specifically, we will do work within the partnership on marine spatial planning and, here, Belize has been a leader.”

 

Isani Cayetano

“From our perspective, we’re looking at this being a Foreign Affairs initiative, as much as it is for us a Blue Economy initiative.  How do these two departments of government come together to fulfill the mandate or what is set forward by PAC?”

 

Jessica Lapenn

”It’s such a great question.  I think that all of these issues are inter-ministerial.  In every government, the Government of Belize, the Government of the United States, we need a range of ministries and agencies to work on these issues and to work together.  So interestingly, the partnership really thinks about how do we work across countries and within countries.  So here I have an opportunity to meet with the range of actors within the government and see how they work together.  It’s really impressive.  That, for me, was the real takeaway.  The understanding is that these are real inter-ministerial challenges and organizations within the government need to work together.  I don’t think that’s easy in any case and here it’s very impressive how that works.”

The Government of Belize has reaffirmed a longstanding partnership with the European Union with the signing of a Green Growth, Trade, and Border Management Program.  The initiative will funded by the E.U. as part of a financing agreement for twelve point six million Euros, the equivalent twenty-seven million Belize dollars.  Present at today’s signing was Marianne van Steen, EU Ambassador to Belize.

 

Marianne van Steen, E.U. Ambassador to Belize

“Today was an important day because we signed a document which is actually the result of hard work from my team here, I have a team in Belmopan, but also the team from the government and many, many people who were involved to kind of look at what are the main areas in which the European Union can continue to provide support to Belize’s development plans.  So we signed a document today where we actually confirmed our willingness to address a number of areas with a sum of 12.6 million Euros, I’ve just made the calculation, that must be about a little bit more than twenty-seven million Belize dollars.  That is not our entire package of support to the country, I have to make that clear, but it’s an important part of our bilateral envelope.  And I am saying thanks to everyone who contributed to that because it’s been a very consultative process.  It’s not like we come here and we say want to help with one, two, three.  We actually talk, both with the government and civil society, and we’ve come up with a couple of very important initiatives for the country.  You will be interested to know which ones they are.  The first one is, it’s not hard to see and everyone knows, we’ve agreed that the main priority, the main needs in this country is the south.  I mean, the south really needs an extra push.  It needs help with its local development plans, it needs help with micro-credits.  It needs help for, let’s say, the most vulnerable participants in society, the women, the children, to get that extra push in order to allow them the possibility to participate more in society and to create livelihoods for them.”

Ambassador van Steen emphasized the importance of the partnership between Belize and the E.U., as well as the new program which has the potential for significant transformational potential for economic prospects in southern Belize, particularly along the border with Guatemala.

 

Marianne van Steen, E.U. Ambassador to Belize

“It was very important, this agreement.  It was the result of hard work and it really illustrates what a good relationship we have with Belize.  I was congratulating the prime minister and it was actually the former Minister of Foreign Affairs, we’ve been working very closely together as to how this government has been able to put Belize on the map.  So I am very happy about that and looking forward to meet the new foreign minister as well, but what I wanted to say is not just about a donor/recipient relationship anymore.  It used to be like that in the past but now we have a very comprehensive relationship with this government and with the country and with the people of Belize.  We are very proud of that because we’re not just talking about funds, grant funds and loans and assisting the country and reaching the sustainable development goals.  That is very important but we do a lot more, we dialogue about what’s happening in the world.  There’s a lot of political dialogue, we talk about trade and we talk about investments.  So I am very happy that we have such a strong relationship with this country.”

The Belize Network of N.G.O.’s alongside the Belize Audubon Society has launched a new project with the objective of bolstering society’s democratic foundation. The project, funded by the European Union, seeks to increase capacity building for local civil society organizations, elevate gender equality and amplify the voices of youths, and marginalized communities such as people with diverse abilities and the LGBTQ. We attended the launch of the event today to get better insight into this endeavor. News Five’s Britney Gordon reports.

 

Britney Gordon, Reporting

The Strengthening Civil Society participation in democracy through effective, inclusive, good governance, reform and oversight project was launched today at the Belize House of Culture. The project seeks to ensure good governance through a series of campaigns, policy reforms and activities to uplift marginalized communities. It is a collaboration with the Belize Audubon Society and the Belize Network Of NGOs. We spoke with BNN Executive Manager, Emerson Codd for more information.

 

Emerson Codd, Executive Manager, BNN

 “The main focus of the project is again, as you can see from our billboard here, it will focus on capacity building for local CSOs to engage in national level policy dialogue. We will also focus a lot on promoting gender equality, women and youth empowerment and inclusion. And we are focusing on promoting an enabling environment on behalf of vulnerable communities with attention to digitization.”

 

 

 

Although the event was officially launched today, Codd informed us that the project has begun its work already.

 

Emerson Codd, Executive Manager, BNN

 “We have hit the ground already. We have conducted a series of workshops geared towards a very important of beliefs that is ongoing, the constitutional reform process. So in terms of the constitutional reform process, we are partnering with the People’s Constitutional Commission, and we have mobilized broad based civil society participation in a series of workshops that has been concluded in November and December.”

 

 

The project is funded by the European Union with a value of around six hundred thousand USD. Ambassador of the European Union to Belize stated that the Union seeks to aid Belize’s objective of bolstering the society’s democratic foundation.

 

Marianne Van Steen, Ambassador of the European Union to Belize, Jamaica, and The Bahamas

 “The European Union thinks that democracy, respect for the rule of law, respect for human rights are essential and they’re very high on our agenda when we work with other countries. So when you go to another country and you would like to contribute and make sure that there is good development in that country, you need to make sure there is a well functioning democracy. So it is pretty new that we start working in different countries to strengthen the role of civil society, but that is because we have understood that in order to have a democracy that works well, you need to have a very vibrant voice of civil society. So it’s a bit of a milestone, this project. It’s a bit new. We’ve been working with civil society a lot, but on particular themes or objectives. But now this is really about strengthening the voice of civil society, because it has an important role.”

 

Codd stated that the project aims to be as inclusive as possible and works alongside every civil society organization in Belize.

 

Emerson Codd, Executive Manager, BNN

 “We are targeting all civil society organizations in Belize. We are trying to be as inclusive as possible and we are working with a cross sector of civil society organization in Belize. So, it’s not geared towards maybe one specific sector of civil society organization. We’re actually targeting the cross sector of civil society organizations that represent vulnerable communities, vulnerable populations here in Belize.”

 

Britney Gordon for News Five.