Meeting of the National CariSECURE Task Force for the Implementation of Data-driven Tools for Evidence-based Policy-making in Guyana
Ministry of Public Security, February 1, 2018
On January 31, 2018, Second Vice President and Minister of Public Security, Honorable Khemraj Ramjattan, convened the first meeting of the National CariSECURE Task Force, established last November to bolster evidence-driven crime prevention.
The Honorable Khemraj Ramjattan, Vice President and Minister of Public Security; Ms. Shabnam Mallick, Deputy UNDP Resident Representative for Guyana; Ambassador Perry Holloway United States Embassy in Guyana and members of the National Task Force.
The meeting was attended by representatives of Ministry of Public Security; Guyana Police Force; Guyana Prison Service; Bureau of Statistics; Ministry of Public Health; Ministry of Legal Affairs; Ministry of Social Protection; Director of Public Prosecution Office; Ministry of Social Cohesion, Department of Culture, Youth and Sport. Also, in attendance was Paolo Del Mistro, Team Leader, on the CariSECURE Project.
The meeting looked at the 2018 Annual Work Plan which included the Establishment of a Table of Equivalencies, Adoption of the Caribbean Composite Citizen Security Indicator Framework, Adoption of the Caribbean Composite Citizen Security Data Sharing Agreement, Design and Deployment of a Crime Information Management System, Piloting of the Women’s Health and Life Experiences Survey and the crime victimisation and perception survey, and Guyana Guidance Note on Citizen Security Data Collection and Dissemination.
The Hon. Minister highlighted the roles and responsibilities of the Task Force. These included the best approaches and mechanisms for effective implementation of the 2018 Work Plan. Ramjattan, reiterated Government’s national priorities and commitment to advance citizen security. He also expressed his sincere gratitude to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for their support in implementing project CariSECURE.
Strengthening Evidence Based Decision Making for Citizen Security in the Caribbean- CariSECURE, is being implemented in ten (10) Eastern and Southern Caribbean countries, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago, with specific emphasis on Guyana, St. Kitts and Nevis and St. Lucia as priority countries.
The project is geared towards improving the quality, comparability, reliability and use of information management systems to inform citizen security policy and programme.
2018 is expected to see the arrival of a company to design the system to support an integrated data collection system for all the relevant sources. And the acquisition of computers for the various stations and other offices from which the data will be sourced.