CaPRI Newsroom

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: The Caribbean Policy Research Institute (CaPRI) continues to blaze the trail of relevant, policy research as it seeks to provide Caribbean policymakers and decision leaders with timely, empirically based research on issues that are critical to the region’s economic and social development.Its report, on the Jamaica Debt Exchange, was the first clear examination of Jamaica’s debt dynamics that showed definitively that it was the state’s assumption of the debts and liabilities of non-state and parastatal entities that had mired Jamaica in its debt burden, rather than the conventional notion that the debt had accumulated due to fiscal imprudence.Within the next few months, three new reports will be released and launched at public forums, as is CaPRI’s tradition, addressing the most important social and economic issues in Jamaica today. Tax reform is one of the most critical areas to be addressed if Jamaica is to overcome its decades-long economic stagnation and move to an economic growth path. The restructuring of the public sector is another crucial linchpin in the country’s economic recovery efforts. And the issue of crime and its causes, perhaps the issue of greatest concern for the country, will be tackled with a quantitative assessment of the various socioeconomic factors that led to the evolution and rise of crime in Jamaica over the last 20 years.Later on in 2010, CaPRI will share its findings on its research on gangs and Jamaican politics. At present, research is being conducted in gang territory to find out the level of support for extant gangs, what if any services the gangs provide, and how secure their hold is on the communities. The research aims to answer the question: 'Will removing one gang leader just create the opening for another and if so, what can be done to alter the situation'. A particularly rich opportunity has recently presented itself in Kingston, Jamaica to test this theory; with the extradition of the alleged gang-leader Christopher “Dudus” Coke to face gun and drug related criminal charges in the US. The Jamaican government’s initial reluctance to comply with the request set off a dramatic and far-reaching debate in Jamaica about the role played in the political system generally by “area-leaders” within specific communities and their popularity on the street. To properly inform the debate, CaPRI decided to conduct a survey of attitudes towards both the dons and the state (including the police) across the country, with enhanced sampling in some well-known gang-controlled communities.Based in Kingston, and with a newly opened branch in Bridgetown, Barbados, CaPRI endeavours to bring Caribbean scholars, together with policy makers, civil society leaders, business people and intellectuals from all over the world, in a collaborative effort to better understand and address the multiple reasons undergirding Jamaica’s socio-economic tribulations and impeding development.As it moves forward, CaPRI seeks to build on its groundbreaking work, such as its 2008 report on Jamaica’s informal investment schemes which was the key document informing the Jamaican government’s response to the fallout that followed their collapse, and was cited by the Inter-American Development Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank as the most reliable source of information regarding the schemes, their dynamics and the most appropriate policy responses.Capping the year 2010 off with a report addressing sustainable water management, CaPRI remains fully engaged in ongoing research projects that utilize the best of the region and its diasporas’ intellect and expertise, as it heads into the fourth year of its commitment to contribute research and opinion of the highest academic integrity to the contemporary policy debate regarding Caribbean development.