On April 30, 2012, the honorable Prime Minister Sarah Wescot-Williams and United Nations Development Program (UNDP) representative Edo Stork signed a three year cooperation agreement. Under this agreement, UNDP will assist St. Maarten in designing a National Development Plan, execute two pilot development projects and build capacity. With the signing the preparations for executing the program will be initiated.The National Development plan will cover a period of 30 years and will be finished a year from now. The development plan will be built on the outcome of a broad democratic dialogue and existing strategic development plans. By bringing together all stakeholders on Sint Maarten, the program will support nation building.
The project will give the citizenry the opportunity to actively participate in the process of the National Development Plan by means of public hearings, advisory committees and via internet. The first step in the process will be to formulate a shared national vision. The success of the dialogues will depend on the participation of the entire society throughout the process.
Another goal within this three year program is the implementation of a Millennium Development Acceleration Framework to tackle the prioritized Millennium Development goals (MDG's). Two pilot projects will be implemented that focus on poverty and environmental sustainability. These projects are budgeted within the program. Funding for additional projects will be pursued within the project.
Capacity building is the final goal within the scope of this program, which will focus on result based management and evidence based management. This means strengthening the collection and processing of statistical information for policy input en performance monitoring. This will also enable government to measure and benchmark St. Maarten's socio-economic development. Census 2012 and other relevant statistical information will be fed into a database system.
