Current DFID Representative to Montserrat Martin Dawson, ends his tour of duty in July before moving on to work in Afghanistan.
During Wednesday’s press conference hosted by Her Excellency the Governor Elizabeth Carriere, we asked him what he felt were the hits and misses of his time working on island.
Dawson counts the work on the geothermal and power project as hits. Along with the advancement of the priority infrastructure project which encompasses work on the roads, emergency shelters and the planned port improvements.
“I underestimated the challenge of working in a smaller space and the pace at which things are done,” shared the DFID rep. He added that his expectations of what he could accomplish within a new culture with different systems may have been too high.
The official said much of what has been achieved during the past two and a half years are not immediately visible, such as the new empowering excellence programme, (read related story) which seeks to improve service delivery of the Public Sector.
Behind the scenes, Dawson said, a lot of the processes and systems are being put in place with the goal of improving the capacity of the Montserrat Civil Service.
He added that the current role of private sector adviser is being reviewed and handled from the DFID offices in East Kilbride. A decision will be made in the months ahead if this role needs to be moved back to Montserrat.
