The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), in collaboration with the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (SIF), officially launched a US$7.2 million project in Kingston, Jamaica on July 25, 2013, which will finance a number of poverty reduction projects throughout the country. The project will be implemented by the Social Investment Fund (SIF). The funds for the project are the allocation for Jamaica under the Bank's Basic Needs Trust Fund (BNTF) which is now into its seventh cycle. A delegation from CDB, headed by Mrs. Darran Newman Belgrave, Portfolio Manager of the CDB's Social Sector Division, joined The Honourable Reverend Ronald Thwaites, Minister of Education, in launching this latest cycle of the BNTF in Jamaica. The project launch took place at an official ceremony at the Terra Nova Hotel and preceded a two-day workshop which focuses on a number of relevant issues including gender mainstreaming, infrastructure maintenance management, environmental management and disaster risk reduction. Participants include staff from the JSIF, key Ministries, the Social Development Commission, and representatives from a wide range of community-based, governmental, non-governmental and private organisations. The goal of the seventh cycle is to contribute to improvements in living conditions of selected poor and vulnerable communities in 10 participating countries (Jamaica, Belize, The Turks and Caicos Islands, Commonwealth of Dominica, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Montserrat, St. Lucia, Cooperative Republic of Guyana, St. Kitts and Nevis, Grenada). It builds on work carried out in previous cycles, and focuses on three key sectors: Water and Sanitation, Education and Human Resource Development, and Community Access and Drainage. Jamaica's projects in the fifth cycle of BNTF were funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) currently called Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development. CAPTION: The Honourable Reverend Ronald Thwaites, Minister of Education, and member of Parliament for Central Kingston delivered the feature address at the official launch of BNTF 7 in Jamaica.