Citizen security experts, decisions makers, and senior technical officers from across the Eastern and Southern Caribbean met in Barbados for the start of a Regional Workshop for the United States Government, through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), CariSECURE (Strengthening Evidence-based Decision Making) Project, implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
Attending the workshop are Barbados’ Attorney General Adriel Brathwaite, representatives from the Police, Prison, and Attorneys-General chambers, and the Youth and National Security Ministries in Barbados, the 6 Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) countries, Guyana, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago. Stakeholders will learn about project achievements to date and finalise key project deliverables and core citizen security indicators.
In addressing the gathering, the US Ambassador to Barbados, the Eastern Caribbean and the OECS, Linda Taglialatela, said, “I am really pleased with how host-country partners are embracing this new focus on evidence-based decision making through USAID’s CariSECURE project. The project will partner with the police, hospitals, statistical offices, sub-regional and regional agencies and relevant non-government entities. This support will enable policy makers to focus crime and violence prevention efforts and make better use of limited resources.”
The CariSECURE Project strengthens national and regional institutions’ capacity to collect and analyse crime and violence data and use the information to develop policies and programmes to reduce youth crime, violence, and victimisation.
In addressing the group, USAID Mission Director for the Eastern and Southern Caribbean, Christopher Cushing, presented on the broader USAID Youth Empowerment Services (YES) Project, under which CariSECURE is 1 of 3 activities.
YES reduces youth involvement in crime and violence in target communities throughout the eastern and southern Caribbean. The Project uses a public health model for youth crime and violence prevention to define the local youth crime and violence problem; target interventions to address risk and protective factors facing both communities and at-risk youth; and share results to foster evidence-based approaches to reducing youth crime and violence in the region.
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