History of SIF

The Social Investment Fund of Belize (SIF) was established by the Government of Belize in 1996. SIF was preceded by an interim organization called the Social Investment Fund Project. Preparation Team which was a nine-member entity set up to prepare the project implementation program.

This included producing all the operational manuals, a menu of projects that would be financed, and a listing of the job descriptions and positions that would become operational upon the establishment of SIF.

The Project Preparation Team (PPT) had an unusual configuration, with a young professional staff posted along with a more experienced team member working in the topical areas of education and social and economic development – areas that were deemed critical to the elimination of poverty in Belize. This proved to be an effective approach since it allowed for the matching of the more conservative approaches of the experienced staff with the energy and dynamism of the younger members of the team. Overall, the PPT was able to utilize the expertise available through the auspices of UNICEF, the Department of Foreign International Development (DFID), the World Bank, and the Chilean Agency for International Cooperation, among others. The Team also got the opportunity to visit other social investment funds in the western hemisphere to glean the best practice methodologies that were available at that time. Belize has benefited immensely from the important foundational work done by the PPT and indeed its successor, the Social Investment Fund.

— Contributed by Dennis N. Jones, member of the Social Investment Fund Project Preparation Team