The Government of Guyana and the Inter-American Deve-lopment Bank (IDB) yesterday signed an agreement for the US$22M Citizens’ Security Programme which aims to build capacity in the Guyana Police Force and the Ministry of Home Affairs and to enhance community policing in Regions Four and Six.
At the ceremony held in the Boardroom of the Ministry of Finance, Minister of Finance Dr Ashni Singh and Representative of the IDB in Guyana, Sergio Varas-Olea appended signatures to the agreement, bringing to a close months of technical work and decision-making in shaping the loan.
According to the IDB, the loan from the bank in the amount of US$19.8M was approved since June last year. The project, which has counterpart financing from the Government of Guyana in the amount of US$2.2M, has a disbursement period of five years from the date of signing.
Among the programme’s objectives are to identify, prevent and counteract risk factors and increase and promote protective factors in communities, families and individuals; strengthen the capabilities of the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Guyana Police Force to implement crime prevention programmes at the national and local levels and strengthen social cohesion within communities.
The first component of the programme is to build capacity in the Ministry of Home Affairs using US$4.48M. The programme will strengthen the Ministry’s capacity in the formulation and the evaluation of evidence-based policies, and the improvement of the overall institutional performance of the Ministry, human resources and development included.
Second will be the capacity building and modernisation of the Guyana Police Force, and for this funds in the amount of US$7.95M will be allocated. This is to help support the Government effort to transform the Guyana Police Force from an incident-driven and reactive institution to one that relies on the analysis of patterns, incidents and problems to enhance its capacity in addressing solutions to the causes of incidents.
In terms of community action, an amount of US$3.4M has been allocated to implement social development interventions addressing crime and violence prevention in disadvantaged, low-income neighbourhoods of Regions Four and Six.
Speaking at the signing, Varas-Olea said that crime and violence have a debilitating effect on a country’s economy. He said that on top of the social and other benefits, a country’s economy stands to grow with less crime.
“We have worked in Guyana for three years, analysing the situation,” he said, recounting the time it took to formulate the programme. Minister Singh said that Government recognises the importance of a strong security sector to the achievements of its national agenda. He said too that the IDB has been a strong partner in Guyana’s development and expressed thanks to the IDB representative.
According to the IDB, it approved the financing of US$1M to support the preparation and the inception phase, including the establishment of a crime observatory in the Ministry of Home Affairs, the implementation of a survey in some neighbourhoods and the preparation of a comprehensive strategic plan for the Guyana Police Force.
The IDB was the first development bank to invest directly in violence reduction, identifying, documenting and evaluating cost-effective interventions to prevent and reduce violence.
Financing from the programme might be used in the construction of new infrastructure including the forensic and crime investigation laboratory, training facilities as well as the rehabilitation of some police stations in the targeted regions.
The IDB said that despite the fact that all communities from Regions Four and Six are eligible to participate in the Community Action Programme, the first five communities identified to participate are Port Mourant, Rose Hall, Annandale, Buxton and Sophia.
The IDB said too that communities would be selected in compliance with the criteria agreed for the programme.
Over the last four years, commencing with the 2002 jail-break, the country has been gripped by a spate of violent crime which manifests itself in bodies dumped, shootings, disappearances and attacks on businesses and shopkeepers. (Johann Earle)
