Human Development Minister Reflects on First Months in Office

Minister of Human Development, Family Support & Gender Affairs, Thea Garcia-Ramirez, describes her past few months at the ministry as a valuable learning experience. Serving her first term in this leadership role, Garcia-Ramirez shared that what she enjoys most is discovering how deeply interconnected the Ministry of Human Development is with every other sector.

Thea Garcia, Minister of Human Development: “Well, it’s a steep learning curve. I had been involved in the National Women’s Commission for  about four years, and we did a lot of advocacy  and a lot of policy.  But at the ministry, it’s more on a technical level so I am having to read and digest copious amounts of literature in order to,  you know,  be able to  engage productively and to participate and guide as well. So I am happy for the opportunity to be able to  learn and understand how child protection especially works  and how it interacts with, or social protection interacts with so many other ministries because while it is the understanding of many that social protection starts and ends at this particular ministry, it is not so. It’s across  other ministries such as education, housing, land, the Ministry of Health and Wellness, even environment. All of these ministries provide social protection and feed into the wider social protection policy and program of the government.”

One of the greatest challenges facing the ministry is financing and resource allocation. Additionally, Minister Garcia-Ramirez emphasized the importance of valuing the ministry’s employees, recognizing that their dedication is essential to achieving the ministry’s goals.

Thea Garcia, Minister of Human Development: “I think the greatest challenge is resources and resource management. Of course, I come from a private sector background and so resource allocation is something that we have to tighten up. It’s been said by different people  on different media outlets that government is trying to ensure efficiency.  And I think that the biggest challenge in the ministry right now is resource allocation, ensuring that we do the most that we can do with what we have  and lobby for more to do our work better so that our very capable cadre  of staff and social workers especially are able to carry out their work. I do  want to say that resources such as vehicles, as money to follow through on different programs and on international conventions that we’ve signed on is always at a premium but also our human resource and capital.  We also need social workers, more social workers.  And so, you know, it’s just a matter of ensuring that we have, and what we do have, utilizing it the best way possible.”

Garcia-Ramirez took over this ministry some 95 days ago, after winning the Corozal Bay seat in the March general elections.