How the I.C.J. Education Awareness Campaign is Funded

Alexis Rosado

Is government’s education awareness campaign already running out of cash?  With pledges for financial assistance from a number of countries, including Mexico, the United Kingdom and Turkey, funding for the countrywide rollout has been defrayed through the O.A.S. and U.N.D.P. and not from government.  At today’s press conference, Ambassador Alexis Rosado painstakingly explained how the campaign is financed.

Alexis Rosado, Head, Referendum Unit, MoFA

“We did have a proposed budget but as I had mentioned to you, it was only a proposal.  We have gotten a commitment from government of two point five million for the entire public awareness campaign.  Out of that we got a first tranche of five hundred thousand, you were exactly right.  That has been already spent and we are in the process of getting a new tranche of five hundred thousand out of the two point five million.  And the reason we haven‘t gotten the full thing is because we didn‘t really need it, we can only use so much because of the implementation phased approach that we are taking into this campaign.  So at the beginning we are setting the basis before we increasingly double up our presence both in the media and across the country.  So, for example, the ads, you would have heard some ads in September but only from the media houses based in Belize City, not from the media houses based out district.  Moving into November we will step up that and place our ads in out district radio stations and so forth.  So the cost will necessarily increase in which case we would ask from central government to draw down some additional funds.  The funds being received from the international community, currently we have one point one million US dollars committed from the US government, the UK government, from Mexico, from Turkey, from the European Union.  But those monies come through either the O.A.S. or U.N.D.P. than through G.O.B.”