Clear, hold and build
Security ministry aims to partner with NGOs in crime-riddled communities
Published:Wednesday | July 14, 2021 | 12:10 AMDavid Salmon/Gleaner Writer
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Security Dr Horace Chang has expressed the need to partner with community-based organisations to address the issues of violent crime in Jamaica.
Dr Chang was speaking at the installation ceremony for the Rotary Club of Downtown Kingston. At the ceremony, he reaffirmed the Government’s commitments to citizen security through strategies such as Plan Secure Jamaica.
“Very important to our overall programme, as explained in what I call the citizen security plan, is to improve the social needs of the community… . There, of course, can be no meaningful reduction in crime and violence unless law and order is restored in the space in which you operate. This is why we have indicated that social investment is critical.”
Dr Chang noted that this approach is different from previous strategies, where social intervention took place without the removal of criminals. Instead, he outlined the need to ‘clear, hold and build’ communities.
“The clear, hold and build strategy is to remove gangs from the community, leave the police in there, and in the build phase we deal with both the social and infrastructure problems in those communities,” Dr Chang said. This, he argued, produces long-term results and provides the best chance of success for community-based organisations.
INEFFECTIVE PROGRAMMES
Dr Chang also stressed the need to pursue an evidenced-based approach to social intervention. He pledged to provide service organisations with information about specific communities, with the hope that this approach will help these groups achieve community transformation and reduce the amount of resources wasted on ineffective programmes.
A recent Caribbean Policy Research Institute study found that between 2007 and 2017, an estimated $387 billion was spent on social intervention programmes for youth with limited success. Thus, Dr Chang expressed that effective monitoring is key to addressing this issue. A key partner to this endeavour is the Jamaica Social Investment Fund (JSIF).
Omar Sweeney, managing director of JSIF, who was present at the event, echoed the minister’s sentiments as he explained that plans being crafted for the Norwood zone of special operations (ZOSO) currently factor in the need for effective monitoring and evaluation.
He told The Gleaner, “This intervention that we are working with now … ensures that the coordination that is done with the government agencies, NGOs and community-based organisations are able to bring to the table the best they have to offer. In the coordination of those entities, we expect the outcomes to be closer to what the desired goals are. This is not an argument about how much money you can throw at the problem.”
Sweeney added that service groups like the Rotary Club plays a crucial role in this process, as they possess important expertise that can be successfully deployed within communities. While the Norwood ZOSO is still in its initial stages, progress has been made with identifying the challenges within the community.
“The good thing is that from our initial walk through of the community, most of the infrastructure in the community is in good condition. They have built our roads and drains well. There are a couple of areas that will need some attention … . Water supply is a bit of a problem, so we want to regularise more costumers on to the NWC framework as well as manage some of the electrification in the community.”
However, he does not anticipate any significant increase in infrastructure spending like other ZOSOs. For Sweeney, the next step is to consult with community leaders who are managing youth groups, sporting activities and other endeavours in order to bring their plans to fruition.