Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller addressing yesterday’s meeting between Caricom leaders and US President Barack Obama (left) at the UWI. At centre is Caricom Chairman Perry Christie. (PHOTO: BRYAN CUMMINGS)
UNITED States President Barack Obama yesterday announced a US$68-million education/training programme just before ending a successful working visit to Jamaica that he admitted was short but suggested that he would love to return with his wife and daughters for a longer stay.
In less than 24 hours in the Jamaican capital, Kingston, Obama also held bilateral discussions with Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller, hosted a summit with Caribbean Community leaders, laid a wreath at the Cenotaph at National Heroes Park in honour of Jamaicans who died in both World Wars, and got a taste of Jamaican culture when he visited the Bob Marley Museum shortly after his arrival at the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston Wednesday night.
The American president, who kept a tight schedule in Jamaica ahead of the Seventh Summit of the Americas in Panama today and tomorrow, announced the education and training programme at a town hall meeting of regional youth leaders at the University of the West Indies, Mona campus.
This year, two dozen young entrepreneurs from Latin America and the Caribbean, including Cuba, will get the opportunity to participate in a pilot programme in the US under the just-launched Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative (YLAI).
The initiative is part of a wider education, training and employment thrust which the US is financing and will be expanded to include 250 young people in 2016 and every year after that.
“We’re going to seek out the most innovative young entrepreneurs in civil society in the Caribbean and Latin America and give them a chance to earn a substantial continuum of the training resources, and connections, networks and capital that (will make) a difference,” the president said.
He explained that the programme will help young people expand their commercial and social connections through business incubators and other means, and that participants would have access to virtual resources, training, mentoring, and platforms to extend their linkages.
YLAI is intended to build on the president’s 100,000 Strong in the Americas Initiative, which was designed to increase the number of educational exchanges between the United States and countries in the region.
“This isn’t charity for us,” Obama said. “It’s an investment in your future, because that means it’s an investment in our future.”
The US president said, too, that the direction of his country’s development aid has shifted towards entrepreneurship and SMEs, which he described as priority areas.
Responding to the announcement, Jamaica’s youth minister Lisa Hanna, who was among the 350 leaders from government and civil society who participated in the town hall meeting, told the Jamaica Observer that the YLAI was on par with initiatives being undertaken in her ministry.
“As you know, the NYS (National Youth Service) rolled out last year its entrepreneurship programme. We’ve already rolled out the programme for this year; we’re training 1,500 young people in entrepreneurship, so this initiative is fantastic because we feel that if he wants 250 persons to go to the US next year, we already have those pools of people prepared,” Hanna said.
“I think Mr Obama is an extraordinary human being and I think what makes him extraordinary is that he has a passion for young people. It’s not often that you find leaders who get it, that young people are the future generation of power; and what he’s very clear about is not giving ad hoc things to make them feel good, but he’s putting in place mechanism to build that generation of power,” Hanna said, with reference to the YLAI.
A fact sheet on the initiative on the White House website said the pilot programme will focus on technology by embedding participants in incubators to work on new applications that their host company or organisation uses or seeks to develop.
Funding for YLAI comes from the United States Agency for International Development, the Department of Labor, and the Millennium Challenge Corporation.
After yesterday’s meeting, several participants told the Observer that they were impressed with the US president.
“I was very impressed with the level of eloquence of the president,” said Jermaine Case, who was representing the Jamaica Youth Advocacy Network. He shared some very good views. I think he could have [allowed] a couple (more) questions, but in the main he addressed some very critical views which I think will enure to the benefit of Jamaica-US relations.”
Miss Universe Jamaica 2015 Kaci Fennell said she was happy that young people got the opportunity to engage with the president. “I’m sad that he didn’t get to choose me, but a lot of questions got answered today, and I’m happy that our voices were heard.”