Human Development: Overview

Increasing people’s choices, allowing them to lead a long and healthy life; to be educated; to enjoy a decent standard of living; as well as political freedom and other guaranteed human rights and ingredients of self-respect, is the aim of human development. Building people’s capabilities is an important requirement for increasing their choices.[1]

It is within this context that the  CARICOM Secretariat, particularly its Human Development programme, has been working with Member States, Community Institutions and a number of regional and international partners and community groups to design and implement policies, programmes and projects to reduce those specific  human and social conditions, which prevent the Community’s people from increasing their choices. Conditions such as: poverty, substance use and abuse, trade related health and development issues, and the negative impact of climate change, all prevent people from fulfilling their potential and are major areas  for intervention.

Areas of Focus

Major areas of focus include:

• Drug demand reduction
• Deepening crime prevention initiatives to address citizen security
• Maintainstreaming  the  Community’s disabilities agenda

In this regard, CARICOM has made important strides and has benefitted from:

• improved policy and legislative framework to address the use of and demand for illicit drugs;
• capacity building  through training in research-based policy and programme development and monitoring and evaluation as well as training in the development and implementation of substance abuse prevention programmes;
• strengthened Drug Councils to address supply control and demand reduction of illicit drugs in Member States;
• strengthened capacity of Member States to design, implement, monitor and evaluate programmes and initiatives to address crime and violence in schools, and vulnerable communities, particularly through the Spain Citizen Security Programme in five Member States; and
• accelerated efforts towards the social integration of  persons with disabilities.

Major activites

Through 2015 the CARICOM Secretariat will continue implementation of the –

• Pétion Ville Declaration on Disabilities, including the establishment of a CARICOM Rapporteur for Disabilities;

• CARICOM-Spain Citizen Security Project – Reducing Youth on Youth Violence in selected schools and communities in Antigua and Barbuda, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis, Trinidad and Tobago;
• training  of Out of School youths in Livelihood/entrepreneurial skills;
• training  In and Out of school youths in life skills;
• crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) implemented in pilot schools;
• integration of drug prevention actions in HFLE programmes and lessons implemented in pilot schools;
• assessment of dormant Drug Councils;
• assessment of  Social and economic cost of drug use and addiction;
• Gender audit of treatment and rehabilitation programmes
• assessment of risk, resilience and protective factors for drug use
• information and communication initiatives, including translation of training manuals, tools, posters, other materials produced under 9th EDF into Dutch, French and Spanish
• training of a cadre of drug demand reduction service providers: - data collection, analysis and utilization for treatment centres
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[1] UN Development Programme (1997)

September 2015