The Mayor of San Pedro Town Daniel Guerrero was part of a Belize Delegation that returned on Monday November 24th from a working trip to Trinidad and Tobago. The work visit to the Caribbean island was coordinated through the Caribbean Local Economy Development Project (CARILED). The purpose of the visit was to attend a forum in which Mayors and other CARILED officials converged from November 20th to 21st to discuss progress on some of the CARILED projects.
According to Mayor Guerrero they participated in several activities as part of the Policy and Local Economic Development Forum. They discussed and analyzed progress made on existing policies and programs spearheaded by CARILED, while looking at areas such as Gender Consideration in Policy Reform. During the forum, they took the opportunity to look at current and pending policy reform that have been outlined by the CARILED program.
The CARILED initiative was launched in Belize in 2012, in which Belize has benefited from four projects. Those projects include BTL Park Renovation Project in Belize City, Kontiki Crocheting Project in San Ignacio / Santa Elena, San Ignacio Farmers Market Improvement Project in San Ignacio and the Young Barbers Training Program in Belmopan.
The CARILED project will run from 2012 to 2018 and is aimed at supporting nearly 50 local governments in the Caribbean. It seeks to assist over 500 small-and-medium-sized enterprises throughout the Caribbean. CARILED is implemented by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) with funds provided by the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development (DFATD). FCM is in partnership with the Caribbean Forum of Local Government Ministers (CFLGM), the Caribbean Association of Local Government Authorities (CALGA) and the Commonwealth Local Government Forum (CLGF) to see that the project is being fully implemented.
The Belize delegation included Mayor Guerrero and Belmopan City Mayor Simeon Lopez representing the Belize Mayor’s Association, Nicholas Ruiz representing The Belize Trade and Investment Development Service (BELTRAIDE), Eugene Palacio representing the Government of Belize through the Ministry of Local Government and Leidi Urbina the National Coordinator of CARILED in Belize.
