 Welcome to NTIA Nightly, I am Genel Norvel. This edition, Stop Story. The St. Lucia Electoral Department is encouraged to heighten public education beyond scheduled elections period for a fuller participation by the electorate. St. Lucia has adopted a new tool to help stem the tide of gender-based violence and more small businesses fill the Love St. Lucia campaign. The Carrickham Election Observer Mission on Tuesday 27th July presented a preliminary statement on St. Lucia's 2021 general election. The 10-member team was on island for both the advance polls and the general elections held on the 23rd and 26th of July respectively. We get details in this report. The Carrickham Observer Mission on Tuesday presented a preliminary statement on St. Lucia's general election. The mission was invited to observe the conduct of the election held on the 26th of July 2021. The advance team, comprised in the chief of mission and the Carrickham Secretariat support staff, arrived in St. Lucia on the 20th of July 2021, while the remaining members of the team arrived over the period of the 21st to the 22nd of July 2021. The 10-member observation mission comprised Nationals of Antigone, Barbuda, Guyana, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago. The mission witnessed the advance polls held Friday the 23rd of July 2021 and the general election on Monday 26th of July 2021. Fern Nasi Scope is the chief of the Carrickham Observer Mission and the chief elections officer at Trinidad and Tobago's Elections and Boundaries Commission. On polling day, the 10-member mission visited the majority of polling stations across the 17 constituencies. The mission monitored the polling activities, which included the opening of the poll, the voting process, the closing of the poll and the preliminary count of the ballots. Additionally, as chief of mission, I visited the St. Lucia's Parliament where election commission officials were receiving the election results electronically. From our observations, the polls were opened in a timely manner in the majority of the polling districts. All the stations observed were fully staffed and most had at least four polling agents present representing the two major political parties, contesting the general elections. Most polling stations were conveniently located and easily accessible to the voters. Though in some instances, there were accessibility challenges for the disabled, elderly and informed. The mission observed that there was an adequate supply of the required voting material, which arrived promptly to facilitate the opening of the polls. The mission extends its appreciation to the Department of External Affairs for its assistance and congratulates the staff of the Electoral Commission, poll workers, the political parties and the candidates, the security forces and the people of St. Lucia on the level of maturity displayed in the peaceful execution of the election day activities. The chief of the Caricum Observer mission also highlighted some areas of improvement. Adequate police security was in place at all locations visited, with officials conducting their duties in a professional and efficient manner. This contributed to the level of calm which accompanied the day's activities. However, a higher level of police participation could have been engaged in maintaining social distancing amongst electors in the queues. The poll workers were focused as they steadily carried out the required procedures, thereby ensuring that all eligible electors who turned out to vote were able to do so. Their efforts to adhere to the COVID-19 protocols and sanitize the polling stations after each elector voted is also commendable. The initial assessment of election day activities by the mission is that the voters were able to cast their ballots without intimidation or fear, and that the results of the 26 July 2021 general elections reflect the will of the people of St. Lucia. A full independent report will be prepared by the chief of the Caricum Observer mission for submission to the secretary general of the Caribbean community, His Excellency Irina Rock. The mission also thanked all stakeholders including the leaders of political parties, civil society, the media and the people of St. Lucia for their warm welcome and cooperation which contributed to the success of the mission. Meantime, the St. Lucia Electoral Department has been encouraged to step up its public education and sensitization campaign beyond the scheduled elections period for fuller participation by the electorate. The recommendation has been made by the Caricum Election Observers who flagged the number of spoiled ballots at the various polling stations. Stephen McCandrew is a commissioner with the Observer mission. We had observed indeed that there were some problems with respect to voting by elderly persons who frequently requested the assistance of the presiding officer because they were not able to complete their ballots. In this regard, I believe it is very important that the Electoral Department of St. Lucia considered mounting public education campaign in the future to educate the electorate about how the voting should be done. And preferably this awareness campaign should be done in the languages without being spoken in St. Lucia because we know that not everybody will fully understand English so it is also wise to use Creole for the public education campaign. Mr. McCandrew gave an example of what occurred on polling day. Our team observed that three ballots were rejected. That was in Babunau. In one instance there was no insert section of the lines. In one instance there was just a cross. So those ballots were rejected by the presiding officer because my understanding is that the instruction was that there should be an X place and that should clearly intersect each other. The observers believe that a broader conversation is needed nationally with the St. Lucia Electoral Department on St. Lucia's election law. John Jarvis is a commissioner with the mission. Even though the intent of the elector was known on the ballot paper, because of this, I believe, information given as to how the vote should be constructed, that was taken to its utmost. And what amazed me was the fact that all polling agents concurred before the declaration was made that it was a rejected ballot, that it was indeed a rejected ballot by their concurrence. In some of our jurisdiction, especially in Antigua, and in some extent St. Kitts, we have the view and we operate that once the intent is known, it could be considered a good ballot. But similarly, this is not the case in St. Lucia. Carrickham Election Observer John Jarvis. St. Lucia has adopted a new tool developed by the United Nations Population Fund to help stem the tide of gender-based violence, especially during the ongoing global pandemic. Chris Satney has more in this report. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought many challenges to the doorsteps of many developing countries like St. Lucia, while the health challenges experienced are widely known, increases in the incidence and severity of gender-based violence lurks under the radar. As a response measure, the United Nations Population Fund, the UNFPA, assisted six Caribbean countries including St. Lucia to develop and strengthen gender-based violence referral pathways to ensure that survivors have access to professional service delivery, accurate and up-to-date information, and timely referrals in and out of emergencies. St. Lucia's Director of Gender Relations, Jeanie Joseph, says the referral pathways launched virtually last week will strengthen the strategies already adopted to combat gender-based violence on the island. As we saw a little earlier on, since anybody can be a victim of gender-based violence, we must also remember that sometimes those victims are children. The accomplishment of the GBV referral pathways follows intensive work done on the island in collaboration with the UNFPA in mapping gender-based violence services among 27 service provider agencies across seven service sectors in St. Lucia, including health, mental health, and psychosocial support, shelter, child protection, security, protection against sexual exploitation and abuse, and holistic GBV support including case management. Permanent Secretary in the Department of Education, Innovation and Gender Relations Michelle Charles says the services mapping utility will be monitored and updated as needed and the changes will be reflected as well in the pathway. Necessary measures to cope the spread of the virus, such as partial and complete lockdowns, meant that access to various types of services was reduced and the quantity and quality of services was severely affected in several sectors. The response to gender-based violence was no exception. Sadly, survivors of GBV were not always aware of where they needed to go to for help, and even service providers were unsure how to refill their clients to required services. UNFPA Representative Denise Blackstock says the organization truly appreciates the long-standing partnership with all stakeholders in developing the referral pathways for the island and reassured the Gender Relations Department and supportive agencies to the plight of victims of gender-based violence. We congratulated the Department of Gender Relations and the Interagency Committee on this significant milestone, recognizing the tireless efforts that have gone into this process since 2020. It's been a very long road and we're very happy to be at this point. The referral pathways, as pointed out by the PS, will complement the package of essential services for women and girls, survivors of violence that was launched earlier this year, and the ongoing work of the Department to ensure that women and girls have access to integrated multi-sectoral and survivor-centered GBV services, including during disasters. The gender-based violence referral pathways includes a training component in the use of the tool by GBV focal points and the case workers. The goal is for the tool to be utilized by response agencies in St. Lucia as of August 1, 2021. From the Communications Unit of the Ministry of Education, Innovation, Gender Relations and Sustainable Development, I am Chris Satney reporting. The St. Lucia Marketing Board continues efforts to stimulate, facilitate and improve the production and marketing of fresh agricultural produce. In an effort to ensure a consistent supply of produce throughout the year, the Department of Agriculture, St. Lucia Marketing Board and the Taiwan Technical Mission has entered into a contractual agreement with a core of farmers. This comes on the heels of a six-month contract commissioned last year, where 20 farmers were scheduled to supply a variety of crops as part of a trial program. A total of 30 farmers have been contracted under the arrangement signed on Wednesday. According to the Chairman of the St. Lucia Marketing Board, Emmanuel Clary, this new purchase agreement aims to deepen relationships between the St. Lucia Marketing Board and local farmers, resulting in a more effective food marketing plan. And I believe that if we continue this trend, the hope of the Marketing Board basically is to ensure that we have as many other farmers participating in programs like that or working with the Marketing Board rather than having to be all over St. Lucia looking for market. It's the hope that the Marketing Board that maybe 80-90% of all farmers would have this kind of arrangements with the Marketing Board, which makes it a lot easier not only for the farmers, because you have one stop where you can bring in your produce, but also the consumers, because we would be in a position to process these crops and make it a product that is probably superior to what is available on the market. The 7 crops targeted under the enhancement of the Efficiency of Production distribution supply chain in the fruits and vegetable sector project, commonly known as the 7 crops project, would be among the crops expected to be supplied by farmers. Ambassador of the Republic of China Taiwan to St. Lucia, His Excellency Peter Shai and Chen, commended all stakeholders on their efforts to ensure the success of the 7 crops project. The first ever United Nations Food Systems Summit will be held in September this year, and I believe the 7 crops project is not only a direct response to the theme of the summit, a just and resilient world that no one is left behind, but also set a course to make real changes. Taiwan will continue to work with the government of St. Lucia to advance agricultural technology, promote a thriving agricultural economy and achieve the 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The Ministry of Agriculture continues to underline its commitment to supporting agricultural stakeholders and ensuring a thriving economy. This is Ntia Naikli. Please stay with us. Caribbean Ties are connected people then and now, a unique exhibition that presents the diversity and complexity in the Caribbean before the arrival of the Europeans. August 1st to the 31st at the 100-year-old Anglican Annex opened daily, 8am to 5pm. Be part of the past, still present today, through stunning exhibits accompanied by live cultural street entertainment. Save the dates. August 1st to the 31st. Welcome back. The Gateway to Global Careers program at the Sir Arthur Lewis Community College is being bolstered by an innovation hub comprising five laboratories on the Morn campus. The labs provide technical assistance and startup incubation for businesses that require application and software development, 3D modeling, food innovation for product development, virtual reality for stimulated training, prototyping robotics and environmental sciences with a focus on the blue economy. Brent St. Kaffring is the head of the innovation hub and the program. He says a pilot phase has been successful so far and looks forward to recruiting another cohort to begin the course in October. We started with a small cohort and it's going smoothly. Nice. We had an eight-week design thinking course and I don't think design thinking is offered anywhere else in St. Lucia. They loved it. They made some prototypes of products they wanted to have and so forth. And next week, Tuesday, they have a lecture from, not a lecture but a webinar I would say, a seminar from Harvard University on sustainable entrepreneurship. So it's going pretty well. Although they paid for the course, they are given a summer internship that I spoke about, the World University of Canada. And they're going to make more money than what they paid. So in other words, basically the course was free for them. And we're getting a lot of funding. Even Taiwan is looking at funding a lot of the next cohort. So I'm going to encourage people to register early. St. Kaifring adds that the recruitment for the Gateway to Global Careers program is different from the other offerings at the college. We ask that they be over 16 because we want them at the end of the program to be able to register a business. Unlike the screening process for the college where you must have a certain amount of CXCs and so forth, we ask for the basic competencies that you can read or write because this is more immersion, this is more hands-on, this is not theoretical, this is doing. So one of the first courses we have is like a design thinking course where you are taught critical thinking, how to prototype, how to spot opportunities and these things. And then you go into the lab, you develop your product, you do field work with your suppliers. So let's say that somebody wants to go into, let's take a common product like fish burgers. We actually arrange for you to do an internship with the fisheries company, the Bureau of Standards, so you can learn about the whole supply chain so that when you have your business it will succeed. Registration for the second cohort of the Gateway to Global Careers program at the Sir Arthur Lewis Community College is scheduled to open from August 1, 2021. The program is a demonstrable commitment of the college to transform the innovative and entrepreneurial landscape of St. Lucia. Certification will be provided to all who successfully complete the program. You live with a certificate of completion and of course this certificate is endorsed by all our partners. We also work in on getting credits for universities such as Arizona State University. So that is also in the making so you will get credits. And for every module you complete, whether it's a workshop on design thinking, whether it's your summer project, whether it's you running the business, you get a certificate validating your hard work, you get something saying that you've done that. And trust me with all our global partners, it carries a lot of collateral with it. The technical mission of Taiwan in July of 2021 signed a memorandum of understanding with the Sir Arthur Lewis Community College agreeing to provide capacity building opportunities and training through the college's gateways to Global Careers program and Innovation Hub among other collaborations. Small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises continue to receive more visibility and support from mass stores' ongoing local supplier campaign. Today the supermarket retailer features two additional operators from the south of the island. Chem Solutions Inc. Ltd and Anges Coco Sticks and Confectionaries. How many Mark has more in this report? Since the Ministry of Commerce launched the Love St. Lucia campaign last year, mass stores has seized the opportunity to improve its relationships with its supplier segment, taking a more personal hands-on approach to the needs of small and medium-sized operators. The local supplier campaign has first featured six companies including Anges Coco Sticks and Chem Solutions Ltd. One of Chem's solutions, Leo Alexander, though qualified as a chef ventured into his own business in 2013, producing small natural body soaps until it evolved into a wide range of cleaning products. We started out with the blue soup. The production was not like what it is today with the machines and stuff like that. We actually started the blue soup production by hand and then after we grow into what we are today. It's my dream and the opportunity is there to expand and not only to supply domestic but to export also. That's what we are working on right now. Despite the competition, Alexander says he is confident that his brand has and will continue to make a difference in people's lives and with the support of Massey, the sky is his limit. I used to be by the market on a Saturday morning. I resorted the morning, packed my vehicle there from 2.30 in the morning, 3 o'clock. Being with Massey, I don't have to study that anymore. Massey actually called me to inquire about branching into some other products which we are on the verge of bringing out. Like I explained the cabalic soup and the toilet soup. Healing from the community of Montet Choselle, Petra William decided to take over the family business of hand-crafting Coco sticks passed down from her mother. With a staff complement of six including herself and husband, the business has grown to also produce guava cheese, plantain chips, tamarind balls and its latest product, Coco cubes. My mom started, she has been doing it for the past 20 years. So I took over. In the past five years, I've been doing it. Okay, because when she was doing it, it was Coco stick, Angie's Coco stick, but now we are doing Angie's Coco stick and confectionaries. I learned all of it from my mom and I kept all the stuff that she had. So they knew how to make all the guava cheese, plantain chips, tamarind balls with love as well. All in it is just love, love and attention. Angie's Coco sticks and chem solutions seem to show limited order to latest MSMEs to have been highlighted by the company's local supplier campaign designed to help build resilience in a seem to show an economy still negatively impacted by COVID-19. From the Government Information Service, I'm Humadi Mark reporting. The Department of Home Affairs and National Security joins the global community in commemorating United Nations' World Day Against Trafficking in Persons. Observed annually on the 30th of July, the day was established to raise awareness of the plight of human trafficking victims, promote and protect their rights. This year's theme, victims lead the way, places victims of human trafficking at the centre of the campaign and highlights the importance of listening to and learning from survivors of human trafficking. The Department of Home Affairs and National Security says while many victims of human trafficking have experienced ignorance and misunderstanding in their attempts to get help, Saint Lucia continues to promote a victim-centred approach. Under Saint Lucia's Counter-Trafficking Amendment Act, services are to be made available to victims of trafficking and the dependent children accompanying the victims. These include appropriate housing, taking into account the person's status as a victim of crime, safe conditions for sleeping, food and personal hygiene, psychological counselling in a language the victim can understand, medical assistance in a language that the victim can understand, employment, educational and training opportunities, and the legal assistance or legal information in a language the victim understands. Meantime, the Department of Home Affairs and National Security says particular attention needs to be paid to minors who are subject to transactional sex with adult males. This crime, though oftentimes hidden, is known to take place in the society and do more disturbingly with the awareness of adults. The Department of National Security is calling on adults, particularly males, not to take advantage of impoverished young girls. The public is being admonished to please report any information on such illegalities to the police at telephone number 45 crime. From the Government Information Service, Hermione Mark reporting. Each year you can support the global fight by wearing blue on the 30th of July. A global community recently joined hands to celebrate Nelson Mandela International Day. United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres during his address indicated that the day poses an opportunity to reflect on the life and legacy of a legendary global advocate for dignity, equality, justice and human rights. Chairman of the Caribbean Community, Caricum, the Honorable Gaston Brown, describing Mandela's legacy as one to emulate, promised greater collaboration between Caricum and Africa. I believe that this example of magnanimity and victory and Mandela's humility, his resilience and genuine desire to develop South Africa for all South Africans are the real gemstones of his legacy. As we celebrate Madiba, I pledge as Chairman of the Caribbean Community, Caricum, to commit my efforts during my term to strengthening of relations between the Caribbean Community and Africa, the motherland. I intend to work on two tracks. I intend to strengthen the institutional relations between Caricum and the African Union. We have made the first steps and these efforts will certainly intensify in the months and years to follow. On the second track, there is much we can do also at a bilateral level to unleash the economic and cultural dimensions of our relations. In 2015, the General Assembly extended the scope of Nelson Mandela Day to promote the humane conditions of imprisonment, raise awareness about the need to ensure prisoners remain part of society and to value the work of prison staff as a social service of particular importance. That brings us to the end of NTN Nightly. Join us next time at 7pm with a repeat at 7am. You can also catch up with us anytime on the St. Lucia Government Facebook page or YouTube channel. I am Channel Novel.