Public Entity Saba representatives, Brenda Tjipjes as Head of Human Resources, and Devi van Groningen, as Head of Legal Affairs, as well as representatives from Sint Eustatius, Bonaire, the National Government Service RCN and the Shared Service Organization of RCN SSO-CN attended a work conference in The Hague from May 21-23.

The work conference titled ‘Strengthening the Caribbean Netherlands’ execution power’ was organized by the Directorate-General for Kingdom Relations of the Ministry of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations. The goal of the conference was to strengthen cooperation, share knowledge, and take concrete steps to make the organizations more effective.

Challenge

Participants indicated that they were especially looking for practical, effective collaboration to strengthen the execution power of their organization. A major challenge that the islands are faced with is a lack of capacity. It then makes it difficult for the local government, and for RCN and SSO-CN to fill vacancies because of this large shortage in the labour market. ‘We want to work together more to tackle this’, said one of the participants.

Manpower and work agreements

During days 1 and 2, stakeholders, including the three public entities, gave pitches and took part in workshops. The topics focused on human capacity and included the return of people who were born on the islands and now live in the Netherlands, recruitment, labor mobility, flexible deployment of workers, and keeping employees motivated.

“The pitches and workshops were very interactive and have contributed to the further fulfilling of ambitions that we have agreed upon,” said the organizers. On day 3, concrete work and follow-up agreements were made. These agreements include a follow-up conference, further collaboration, sharing of plans and documents, and a vision of education wishes and a mobility bank.

GIS