4 April, 2005
The Project proposal was prepared as an output of this planning phase however the grantee is required to do some amendments and needs to secure the co-financing for the project along with the provision of some additional documentation such as authenticated copies of the lease agreement which the farmers at Mabouya and Buccament have with their respective Governments.
The General Project Objective has been identified as follows; To combat land degradation in the islands of St. Lucia and St. Vincent by assisting rural farmers and youth in the adoption of sustainable traditional agricultural practices.

Specific Project Objectives:-

i) To build the capacity of rural farmers and youth in St. Lucia and St. Vincent to conserve and restore agricultural lands by the adoption of sustainable agricultural practices.

ii) To build the capacity of rural farmers and youth to access niche markets and achieve compliance with regional and international certification standards.

iii) To train unemployed youth in identified rural communities to deliver specialised farm services linked to sustainable agriculture and income generation.

iv) To document experiences and lessons learnt towards the sharing of experiences and informing future initiatives in the participating countries and other Caribbean states.


September, 2005
SGP office has requested and is awaiting an update from the Grantee.

February, 2006
Telephone conversation with Dr. Rankine who has promised a Project Update.

September, 2006
Comments shared with grantee via email (2005-2-17) have not been addressed to date. Project update also outstanding....

There appear to be no hope for this project to be further developed as a Full Grant as the grantee has shown little interest in following up and the contact person responsible for the project has left the organisation. Many NGOs and CBOs have limited human resources and the loss of an employee can result in many changes including little follow-up as they enter a survival mode. NGOs and CBOs need to engage more and more in succession planning to avoid such dislocations.