CAPRI Commentaries

The 10th Biennial Jamaica Diaspora Conference recently convened over 1,200 attendees in Montego Bay to discuss strengthening engagement between Jamaica and its diaspora. Key stakeholders, including government officials, private sector leaders, local Jamaicans, and Jamaicans living abroad, emphasized the call for diaspora members to "come home". This call raises two critical questions: …

In 2019, Jamaica implemented a phased ban on single-use plastic bags, straws, and polystyrene products. The ban, established under two 2018 ministerial orders, prohibits the importation, distribution, manufacture, and use of these items,…

CAPRI’s reports “Zero Murders: Searching for Lessons from Two…

In April 2023, Jamaica hit a record low unemployment rate of 4.5 percent, underlining a shift from a decades long economic problem of surplus labour capacity. The current rate of less than 5 percent, defined by most economists as “full employment”, is unprecedented in Jamaica’s post-independence history, during which unemployment averaged 17 percent. The labour market situation has created a shortage of workers across several industries and skill levels and has led the…

Jamaica possesses the highest proportion of urban residents on informal land holdings within the Latin American and…

Prime Minister Andrew Holness, in a recent address to students and teachers, acknowledged the controversy surrounding the call for a total ban on corporal punishment (hitting/slapping/physical punishment). The National Commission for Violence Prevention, the entity established in 2019 and charged by the Prime Minister with developing recommendations to reduce the prevalence of various forms of violence in the country, has identified corporal punishment as a violation of the “personhood” of children and has…