Better coordination needed in anti-violence fight – CAPRI

A call has been made for the creation and maintenance of a central coordination unit for social or anti-violence interventions across Jamaica by the Citizen Security Secretariat, which was established in October 2020.

Though all interventions have a similar primary objective, which is to reduce the risk factors of youths at risk of participating in crime and violence, collaboration appears to be limited.

It has also been recommended that there be increased training and usage of monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) frameworks.

These are among five recommendations made by the Caribbean Policy Research Institute (CAPRI) in its Testing, Testing: Challenges to Measuring Social Programmes for At-risk Youth 56-page report.

The research sought to examine if the interventions – as outlined in project documents or according to project stakeholders – are based on a theory of change, have a MEL framework, and the extent to which collaboration features in the intervention.

“Despite an investment of $387 billion in a plethora of such interventions for over a decade, there has been neither a widespread change in the most obvious violence indicators (shootings and murders), nor have the interventions produced evidence that suggest that they are ‘working’,”a section of the executive summary read.

Jamaica has the highest per capita murder rate in the Latin America-Caribbean region, and the main victims and the main perpetrators of violence are young males from volatile, socio-economically challenged communities.

SEVERAL WEAKNESSES

The researchers attributed these failures to challenges with monitoring and evaluation, weaknesses in programme design, capacity, coordination, sustainability and transparency.

An assessment of 10 social-intervention programmes for at-risk youth found that six checked all the boxes for having the basic components of assessing the intervention’s outcomes, while seven of the programmes used theory of change in designing their framework.

“A systemic gap persists and until it is resolved, even in the case of programmes which nominally feature correct procedures, then the suboptimal outcomes will persist,” the report read.

CAPRI highlighted that the Housing, Opportunity, Production and Employment (HOPE) programme is one of two interventions assessed that does not have a MEL framework.

“Given the auditor general’s finding that HEART suffered a severe monitoring and evaluation deficit, if there is to be a merger of HOPE and HEART, it is imperative that a suitable MEL framework be integrated into the merged entity, and the capacity provided to implement it,” the report stated.

The report outlined that programmes implemented by the Government appear to have the weakest approach to monitoring and evaluation, with the exception of the Partnership Towards Youth Crime and Violence Prevention.

Researchers reasoned that it was likely due to the fact that the intervention is funded by a donor agency, and so has had to adhere to the funder’s requirements.

Further, with collaboration lacking between interventions, the researchers said coordination can provide a more cost-effective and resourceful approach to impact hard-to-reach populations.

“In the Jamaican context, where there may be several interventions running parallel to each other, in the same vulnerable community, with the same target group, there is often overlap, target participant burnout, duplication of efforts, and conflicting objectives,” it said.

judana.murphy@gleanerjm.com

Quick Facts

• Between 2013 and 2018, nineteen male children aged 12-14 years have been charged with murder;

• Three out of four gang members are between ages 12 and 30;

• Males under 35 years represent 32 per cent of victims for category one crimes;

• Males under 35 years represent 80 per cent of all homicide victims;

• Between 2013 and 2018, males under 35 years old represented 77 per cent of all perpetrators arrested and charged with a category one crime.

Interventions sampled in research

• Housing, Opportunity, Production and Employment (HOPE)

• We Transform

• Truck Driving Simulator

• Jamaica Combined Cadet Force

• Partnership Towards Youth Crime and Violence Prevention

• Child Resiliency Programme

• Fight for Peace

• Local Partner Development: Core Partners

• Irie Classroom Toolbox

• Behaviour Modification Intervention