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alexk
Guest
It’s about engaging the man on the ground and taking a grassroots approach to better appropriate the needs and development of people. That is what the Inter-American Development Bank says is the basis for its upcoming community outreach event carded for Saturday at Arima Veledrome.
New IDB country representative for T&T, Rocio Medina Bolivar told the T&T Guardian that the event, titled ‘Cheer Fair’, is part of its Unfollow campaign which was launched in 2017 under then country representative Tomas Bermudez with the slogan ‘Same never made a difference’.
Bermudez hopes the IDB would reach out to individuals to find out what they think about the future of their country through the campaign.
As such, Bolivar said the event is open to the public and would offer information on several areas relative to human development, including education, health, water sanitation, gender and housing to name a few. A mobile clinic will also be on site to do various testings and entertainment will be provided.
Bolivar said the IDB wanted to take an unconventional approach to engage people, a move which ties in with its third foundational pillar—human development.
“Whatever we do has to be reachable because sometimes institutions like IDB and other organisations seem very distant from the public; people aren’t really certain what we do and how they can benefit from us. That has to change hence the implementation of the campaign,” Bolivar said.
Bridging the gap between the private and public sector is also part of the campaign’s mantle. Bolivar said although each plays its individual role, there is need for them to come together, especially when in the interest of human development.
“Normally we are engaged with the public sector, the authorities or even civil society and with private sector, but with this event we are trying to get closer to the man on the ground through the cooperation of these very same sectors,” Bolivar noted.
“At the end of the day the work that we bring to T&T is to improve lives; that’s our motto. That is the end goal.”
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