National Integrated Development Strategy

As stabilization continued to consolidate and our country’s growth imbalances expanded, not without difficulty, in the last decade, and as the opportunities and challenges of globalization became clearer and more threatening, the idea resurfaced that public policies and programmes should fit into an overall vision and long-term strategy that gives them sense and coherence.

In this context, the need for integration between the economic, social and environmental aspects of development became more than obvious, and the importance of coordinating activities, programmes and policies took on a fresh relevance and character. Incorporation of social, environmental and economic aspects from the inception of policy and programme formulation by the government in all fields - and not only those traditionally understood as social, environmental or economic - posed new institutional and political challenges and opened up new possibilities for the sustainable development of the country. Government believed that an integrated approach was feasible.

The conceptualization of the project was advanced through a symposium organized by the Chief Minister's Office, in collaboration with the Development Planning Unit (DPU) in November 1992. The aim of the symposium was to identify the national planning priorities. “A Concept Paper”, entitled National Integrated Development Plan (NIDP), 1994-1998, was presented. This paper set out preliminary objectives and scope of the proposed plan, and the intended approach for its elaboration. It also defined the major elements, the vision, and set out a schedule of activities leading to the finalization of a NIDP by December 1993. This symposium was attended by the Ministers, Permanent Secretaries, and Members of the Planning and Projects Review Advisory Committee (PPRAC).

Formulation of National Integrated Development Strategy (NIDS) obviously called for an integrated and comprehensive process involving the widest possible cross-section of stakeholders within and connected to the British Virgin Islands. The process overall included conceptualization, research analysis, strategy formulation, validation, approval, implementation and monitoring/evaluation. The National Integrated Development Strategy process is an iterative, time-consuming one with consultation and participation as key operational components. Further details of the NIDS process are included on this website.

To undertake such a comprehensive exercise requires resources of various kinds. One of the most critical of these was human resources - the persons engaged to undertake the research, analysis and formulation of strategies as well as those stakeholders engaged in the process of contributing the development of solutions, validation and acceptance of the proposals. Besides actors, the institutional framework includes the mechanisms through which actors and stakeholders are able to participate and deliberate. The components of the institutional framework are included on this website. One of the main structures in the development process was the NIDS Sub-Committees which were responsible for the research, analysis and strategy formulation. Of course the NIDS process overall was directed by the Project Management Team which in turn was co-ordinated by the Director of Planning.

During the time of the Symposium the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Committee on Human Settlements (UNCHS) were in the process of executing an economic planning and a physical planning project, respectively. The idea and decision to consolidate the requested extensions of these initiatives into an integrated development project was approved by government in late 1994 and re-confirmed by the new administration in 1995. We have placed a Brief Description and Summary of the NIDS on this website along with the Entire Project Document to give our readers the full background on the project. Provided on this site are the Research or Background Papers on the various areas studied.

Development of this project included a full cross section of the various stakeholders involving conceptualization, research, validation, approval, formulation, implementation, implementation, monitoring and post-implementation evaluation. For our readers to gain a fuller appreciation of NIDS the Conceptual Framework and the NIDS Process documents are posted on this website.

The fundamental process of the project was public consultation in which the stakeholders were able to participate in the deliberations on research and policy formulation. To initiate this process a Public Consultation Document was issued. From the issuing of the consultation document a full Programme of Activities was developed.

Undertaking a project of such magnitude requires a well thought out strategy given the range of stakeholders and the institutional arrangement necessary to conduct investigations, exchange information and formulate strategy. The institutional framework, consisting of the stakeholders/participants and institutional measures, both make up the Implementation Strategy. From time-to-time it is essential to kept the public informed of the progress of this initiative. In this connection Quarterly Progress Report will be posted for your convenience.

The NIDS is expected to have outputs, indicators and outcomes if we are to determine its effectiveness and the impact it has on the lives of British Virgin Islanders. Making the information public is part of our effort at transparency, openness, responsibility and accountability. The major output of this initiative is the broad strategy or overarching goals and they are contained in the Main Report. Of course the main report sets the planning context, introduces us to planning in its various forms, describes the national agenda and challenges, proposed a policy framework, outlines the implementation strategy and provides a set of summary data tables.

Following the main report and its approval, the Development Planning Unit, as the Secretariat of the NIDS prepared a Detailed Policy Matrix showing overarching goals, development themes, development objectives and development programmes derived from the research and consultative processes.

For this initiative to be judged on its contribution to the development of the BVI one has to know what we expected to change and by how much. These measures must be objective and verifiable in both qualitative and quantitative terms. Another dimension of our measurement instrument is that they must be objective and internationally comparable. The means that our Indicators and Outcomes must be of international standards but relevant to the development situation National Integrated Development Strategy of the British Virgin Islands.