1. Name of the Best Practice
Belize Development Trust
2. Address of the Best Practice
3. Contact Person
4. Type of Organization:
The Nominating Organisation (if different from above)
"The Reporter" (national newspaper)
"Amandala" (national newspaper)
"The Village Voice" (community newspaper)
"San Pedro Sun" (community newspaper)
Florida International University, Miami, Florida
Casado Internet Group
Peter Singfield. E-mail:email@example.com
British Museum, London, England; (Entomology Department)
Many others: The list is too long. Contributions are voluntary, or donated as circumstances require.
Type of partner Support
7. For each Partner, specify the principle type of support
MEDIA ( NEWSPAPERS ) Contribution of investigative articles, factual technical articles from local academics and other public awareness type of community dialogue to identify and achieve public consensus on development issues.
Brian Keating, founder of Community Colleges in Louisiana, USA. Technical advice, research, experience and support.
Florida International University, Librarian, Silvia Pinzon MLS. Grant Writing, donated research hours, Belize National Library Technology Survey and Plan. Belize Electronic Resource and Development Library.
Casado Internet Group, Oregon, USA. Webmaster for Small Business Project, webpage making and installation. (Voluntary labor, construction and establishing on the internet) ( Thousands of informative and small Belize business pages)
Peter Singfield (Business Title unknown): internet research hours, telecommunications "internet by E Mail" project expert, medical alerts for dengue fever, malaria and other current rural health problems.
Financial Profile (Optional)
Category of the Best Practice:
Level of Activity
The Belize Development Trust was created in 1997 to formalize and coordinate the efforts of numerous individuals, technical expertise, good-will and volunteerism found through shared interests expressed by desires and contributions on a discussion and debate listserve created by a Belizean student abroad. The idea was to coordinate a fragmented effort by individuals from the past few years, into an effective group format and set by example, a method of tackling development problems in Belize.
Prior to this, individuals had contributed suggestions and ideas, wishes, hopes and dreams, printed books on political and constitutional reform, recommended changes in centralized education versus the ineffective European classical educational methods currently used for our Third World under-developed country. It was the intention of the Belize Development Trust to coordinate all these different desires and expressions of good will for the future of the country, into an organized group effort to make concrete changes for the betterment of society. This is an ongoing process.
The philosophy of the Belize Development Trust is to help people help themselves. It is believed that development can not be given but must be done by the individuals themselves. The Belize Development Trust wishes to create an environment of dialogue, discussion, and debate. Some technical assistance, perhaps a piece of machinery to start a group going, encouragement, research and expertise. Pilot projects on a cooperative basis, seed capital, and technical assistance done in a cooperative organizational format are envisioned in the near future.
Correctly done, the Belize Development Trust will get no credit for any endeavor, development, legislation changes, educational reform, constitutional reform, or any other community development project. The purpose of the Belize Development Trust is to be a CATALYST. If we do our development right, individuals, politicians, and civil servants will take credit for the changes effected on society.
SITUATION BEFORE THE INITIATIVE BEGAN
1. What was the motivation for developing the initiative?
2. What was the nature of the relations between key
partners before the initiative?
3. What was the social, economic and environmental context
of the location?
4. What were the issues/problems to be addressed?
PREPARING INFORMATION AND CLARIFYING PRIORITIES
1. How were the stakeholders involved?
2. How were intiative priorities set and refined?
FORMULATION OF OBJECTIVES, STRATEGIES AND MOBILIZATION OF
1. What were the objectives?
2. What actions were taken?
3. How were the actions chosen?
4. How was political support mobilized?
5. How were resources mobilized?
6. Who assumed leadership roles in formulating the
7. Who assumed leadership roles in implementing the
2. How were they overcome?
3. Which important problems remain?
1. Were the objectives described above realized?
2. How were your results measured?
3. Were indicators used to measure results/impact?
4. Was better coordination and integration achieved?
5. What impact has the practice had on local/national social
economic and environmental policies/strategies?
6. What impact has the initiative had on institutional
capacity at the national, sub-national and local
7. What impact has the initiative had on local or national
decision making, including the institutionalization of
8. Where there any special opportunities for change?
9. What impact did the initiative have on the use and
allocation of human, technical and financial resources at
the local/national level?
10.What impact has the initiative had on changing peoples'
attitudes and behaviour?
1. How was the integration of the social, economic,
environmental and cultural elements of sustainability
2. How were resources leveraged?
3. How was cost recovery employed?
4. How was dependance on external resources addressed?
5. Is there a time-line for achieving self-sufficiency?
6. If loans are involved, how are they being paid back?
1. What were any lessons learned from other inititatives
that were incorporated into your initiative?
2. What were the three most important lessons learned?
3. How have the lessons learned been incorporated into the
1. What can others learn from your initiative?
2. Has your initiative been replicated/adapted elsewhere?
4. By whom?
5. What is the potential for transferring all or parts of
1) Tilapia Fish Farm Project: 8 tanks; forty-foot diameter, cement block. 2,000 lb. per week fish fillet production farm, for remote, isolated Mayan Indian jungle hill community, as a sample cooperative, to show how to increase protein/meat intake and to provide a cash crop, by sale of fillets to coastal towns.
2) USD$84,000. One year amount of research-hours needed to expand the Belize Electronic Resource and Development Library. http://AmbergrisCaye.com/BzLibrary
3) Distribute 1,000 Belize History books to ALL the schools in the nation (two dozen books already distributed).
4) Establishment of a Community College Server, autoresponder, and software to enable E-mail subscribers access to the Internet.
5) For the Curator in London, England, that we would like to build a NATIONAL MUSEUM to house a National Collection and repatriate all those permanently loaned archeological and biological Belize collections from abroad now in foreign institutions.