WASHINGTON, USA --.In response to a request made by Deborah-Mae Lovell, Antigua and Barbuda’s Permanent Representative to the OAS and Ambassador to the United States of America, the OAS will provide technical assistance to Antigua and Barbuda’s Public Sector Transformation programe that is currently been undertaken by the government. Lovell made the request on 18 December, 2009 when she met with the Secretary General of the OAS, Jose Miguel Insulza.

Ambassador Lovell greeting OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza

As a result of this initiative, the OAS will engage in a diagnostic mission in the first instance by dispatching Moises Benamor, specialist in the Department of State Modernization and Governance at the OAS to hold discussions with Ambassador Joan Underwood, Chief Implementation Officer and the Director of the Public Sector Transformation Advisory Committee as well as other relevant authorities in Antigua and Barbuda.

Through the preparatory meetings, scheduled to be held between 10-11 February, Benamor, will identify the nature of the inputs required pursuant to the government’s public sector reform agenda and flowing from this, he will be placed in a position to prepare a roadmap for the technical experts who will come to Antigua and Barbuda following the initial meetings.

This latest contribution from the OAS forms part of a wider package of assistance that Antigua and Barbuda receives from the hemispheric organization. In addition to its long history of providing scholarships and professional training for Antiguans and Barbudans, the OAS, during the course of the past eighteen months has provided assistance for the following projects: The Integrated Management Plan for Codrington Lagoon; The Regional Network of Women in Politics; Tourism Training and Certification and The Customs Automated Services, to name just a few.

In outlining the assistance given to Antigua and Barbuda by the OAS, Lovell has said that her delegation will continue to work to ensure that the level of development assistance to our country by the hemispheric organization will not only be maintained but also expanded.