Earth Today | High praise for new community engagement course
Published:Thursday | January 8, 2026 | 12:07 AM
CARIBBEAN DEVELOPMENT practitioners now have the benefit of the first certified online community engagement course, courtesy of the Caribbean Development Bank’s (CDB’s) Basic Needs Trust Fund (BNTF).
A reported 900-plus individuals have participated in the course since it was launched last October. Titled ‘Community Engagement in the Caribbean Context’, the course offers a range of modules that provide exposure to training on mobilising community assets and engaging marginalised groups and Indigenous Peoples, among other subject areas, including climate change.
“This course equips participants with the knowledge, skills, and tools needed to foster inclusive, participatory, and sustainable development at the community level, specific to the Caribbean context,” noted Richardo Aiken, community development specialist at the CDB, in an article on the subject, published on the bank’s website in October.
The course reportedly builds on the 2021 Community Engagement Guidance Note, developed in a multi-stakeholder partnership involving the BNTF, which has benefitted more than three million people in poor communities since 1979; the Centre for International Development and Training; and the Community Disaster Risk Reduction Trust Fund, together with regional practitioners.
Participants, meanwhile, have heaped praise on the course through their social media platforms.
“The community engagement course equipped me with practice, responsibility, teamwork and advancement,” noted one participant via LinkedIn.
“This training has strengthened my skills in stakeholder and community engagement and equipped me with practised tools to support respectful, meaningful and culturally appropriate engagement, particularly when working with Indigenous and tribal communities,” noted another, also via the platform.