1 March 2022
Ministers have today released their vision for St Helena:
A SUSTAINABLE ENVIRONMENT that creates OPPORTUNITY and inspires SOCIAL and ECONOMIC PROGRESS ensuring a better quality of life for all.
- SUSTAINABLE – Provide a foundation for our community and businesses to first consolidate, then develop, and finally aspire to a prosperous future through a sustainable approach using our unique but limited resources
- OPPORTUNITY – Set a path for our island that focuses on niche opportunities, which will generate new streams of revenue that will have minimal impact on natural resources and which will overcome constraints of our geographic location, size and population.
- PROGRESS – Take decisions that move us forward as an island to ultimately get us closer to achieving our desired outcomes.
Chief Minister Julie Thomas explains:
“At the heart of our vision, there are three main dimensions: Our Environment, Our Economy and Our Social obligations. To enable us to achieve our vision our priority policies will focus on specific areas, which are instrumental if we are to address the current challenges impinging on our ability to create a more optimistic and viable future for our island. During our tenure we will strive to keep our strategy flexible to respond to changing needs and priorities.”
- Ensure a more robust health care service which acknowledges and focuses on holistic health, taking into account our aging population and the complexity of our health and social needs, whilst encouraging a more responsible approach to improving our individual lifestyles
- The development of our Renewable Energy and Water Security plans which ensure that we primarily protect our environment, whilst delivering both resources at affordable prices
- Achieving economic growth by enabling local private sector development and making St Helena more accessible for visitors, investors and residents by modernising legislation and policies that make St Helena more attractive to live, work and do business
- Food Security – putting in place policies and legislation to enable the expansion of our agricultural and fishing sectors through modern techniques
- Provide and encourage niche opportunities to attract and facilitate new streams of revenue, in an attempt to reduce our reliance on UK aid and bolster our current shrinking tax base
- To be the Government that takes St Helena forward into a new digital era maximising opportunities that create the platform for existing businesses to grow and new businesses to commence
- Strengthening and improving our educational offering by continuing to recognise the importance of inclusivity, whilst acknowledging the prominence of education in our lives. Encouraging Life Long Learning by investing in and valuing our people in order to develop through upskilling, training and rewarding as we create a sustainable workforce
- Implementing schemes and policies that will create an environment whereby we can provide options for affordable housing, enabling our residents to own their homes
- Conducting a review of current legislation and policies to ensure a more accountable, responsible Government that operates effectively, efficiently and ethically. We will take pride in our infrastructure and critical assets, whilst utilising where possible, bespoke solutions to address local problems, honouring the expertise and skills of our people
- Improved internal and external communications and engagement to build a more informed community
- We will strive to maintain and improve our blue and green agenda aspiring to become a blue print for others to follow.
A detailed roadmap (the SHG Strategy) setting out priority actions and deliverables, together with performance indicators to monitor implementation is being developed and this will be published once finalised.
SHG
1 March 2022