JAMAICA | PNP Demands Accountability For the $1 Billion Jamaica Screen Development Initiative

Kingston, Jamaica. February 10, 2025: Opposition Spokesperson on Culture and Creative Industries, Dr. Deborah Hickling Gordon, is calling for transparency on the allocation of the $1 billion Jamaica Screen Development Initiative (JSDI) fund for the 2024/25 budget year, following the failure to disburse funds to local filmmakers as promised.

The issue arose after a film screening during Reggae Month, funded by the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport (MCGES), which raised concerns about duplication and overlapping government programs and resource allocation.

While the screening of films is a necessary part of the supply chain associated with the promotion and distribution of audiovisual projects; Dr. Hickling Gordon indicated that this was firmly a part of the financial mandate and allocation of the JSDI initiative.

“The MCGES might well choose to exercise discretion in its programming of Reggae Month to include film given the natural convergences with music, but even that discretion needs to be more transparent. 

Budgetary overlaps in a time of economic contraction bring into sharp focus the serious issue of governance fragmentation that has been identified in at least three international studies done on the status of the Jamaican creative economy”,  she said.

According to the PNP Spokesperson, fragmentation seems to be a high level policy issue but it affects cultural and creative practitioners in real ways.   With this in mind, she is calling on the government to answer the following questions.

• What is the current status of the $1billion dollar fund?  What are its balances and what has the 24/25 spend covered? 
• Why were the ‘overseas assessors’ delayed in selecting beneficiary films beyond the end of the budget year, resulting in the failure of the JSDI to achieve its mandate?  
• Were these assessors contracted consultants with Terms of Reference outlining the scope and timeframe of the evaluation process?
• Has the precarity of Jamaican creative work and workers, in keeping with global ‘Status of the Artist’ standards been taken into account with the delay in the disbursement to the new budget year?

Dr. Hickling Gordon pointed out that the absence of an overarching cultural economy policy over the last nine years has exacerbated the issue, especially in screen industries, which are governed across multiple ministries including the Office of the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce, the Ministry of Education, Skills, Youth and Information, the Ministry of Science, Energy, Telecommunications and Transport. She stressed the need for a streamlined approach to avoid overlap and ensure proper funding for Jamaica's creative sectors.

The PNP says it remains committed to implementing its strategy and action plan for growing and developing culture and the creative economy, with a focus on sustainable economic growth and development, governance, transparency, inclusion, and purposeful implementation. 

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