Reports

Any country which wants to maximize the productivity of its workforce, and to harness the full potential of its people towards economic growth and development, must proactively reduce or eliminate discrimination against groups of people who are excluded from full participation as a result of that discrimination.

In Jamaica, where discrimination against LGBT people is rife and amply documented, such discrimination results in a senseless waste of human potential, with negative implications for the country’s economic growth prospects. This report examines the landscape of sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination in Jamaica, and how that discrimination can be directly and indirectly tied to negative economic and social outcomes and thwarted developmental prospects.

Jamaica's extraordinarily high levels of violence undermine citizen security and retard economic growth. Over the past two decades, dozens of state and non-state actors, in a desire for peace, have initiated several violence-reduction/ intervention programmes in August Town. So when, in 2016, the violence plagued community recorded “zero murders,” all of Jamaica took note. The cries about how this was achieved, which, with the exception of 2016 remain unchanged. After decades of extraordinarily high violence, with a homicide rate of 120 per 100,000, how did August Town achieve this?

With reference to August Town’s “zero murders” in 2016, this study explores the various theories with the objective to distil “lessons” from August Town’s experience, particularly as it regards anti-violence interventions, with the aim to build knowledge on the different approaches to reducing violence in high violence settings; and ultimately to inform GoJ decisions regarding the direction of and investment in violence prevention intervention programmes in violence-ridden communities.

Despite many public statements at the highest level assuring commitment to environmental protection and sustainability, the Jamaican government has failed to operationalize these promises. Deforestation, soil erosion, degradation of coastal ecosystems, over-fishing, poor air quality, poorly managed parks and protected areas, pollution of harbours, rivers, streams and aquifers, unplanned and unregulated settlements in areas most vulnerable to natural disasters, inadequate management of solid and liquid waste, and poor development planning and control are key features of the state of Jamaica’s natural environment. It has long been recognized that the weakness of the environmental regulatory and institutional framework is the primary obstacle to good environmental stewardship.

Jamaicans must face some uncomfortable truths about our violent crime problem. One such truth is that if we are to significantly lower the rates of homicide and other violent crimes and  weaken the power of criminal networks in the society, we cannot avoid a renewed attempt at a thorough transformation of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF).  This transformation should bring the force more in line with democratic policing principles and methods of work and make it more effective as an instrument of crime prevention and control.