Agencies Keen on Continuing Aspects of JASPEV Project

Several agencies have expressed interest in continuing aspects of the Jamaica Social Policy Evaluation (JASPEV) project, which will end in December 2006. This is as a result of the positive impact the project has had on participants.
At a recent JIS ‘Think Tank’, Communications Specialist at JASPEV, Keron Morris, pointed out that through the Youth Inclusion Prototype operated by the project, the young people identified three areas of policy attention, including entrepreneurship, continuing education and police-youth relations, as major areas of concern.
He revealed that the Jamaica Business Development Centre (JBDC) planned to adopt the entrepreneurship component, whilst the Ministry of National Security would continue the police-youth relations element.
“The police-youth relations tenet has broken down several barriers in war- torn communities and has significantly assisted the police force in addressing how they relate to young people,” Mr. Morris said.
Speaking of the youth inclusion prototype, Co-ordinator, Steadman Noble said that it is considered a test of how the joined-up effort of government could improve service delivery.
“What we have done is to bring together a number of agencies that would normally work individually.and they have engaged these same young people with whom we have consulted in the area of entrepreneurship,” Mr. Noble said.
“Consultations that were previously held have affected the design of the project, but the prototype was set up to test how we are going to make this work,” he further explained.
Mr. Morris pointed out that the key principles being forwarded by JASPEV were based on participation and consultation, evidence-based policy-making, and joined-up government.
“Joined-up government,” he explained, “speaks to different agencies coming together to pool their resources and provide better services to their clients in a more concerted effort, where the expectation is that less funds will be used and they will be better able to deliver their services without having to concentrate single efforts”.
The project also focuses on responsive service delivery. These core principles are mainstreamed through a number of mechanisms, such as a progress report, and other elements.
Mr. Morris noted that the youth inclusion prototype had been successful, with over 150 young people participating and receiving services from the entrepreneurship Multi Function Team (MFT), with additional persons signing up on the database.
“Over 300 youths participated and signed up on the continuing education component with entities such as HEART Trust/NTA, Jamaica Foundation for Lifelong Learning and other learning institutions offering support,” he said.
Turning to the police-youth relations, he said that in the inner city communities across the island, “we have had joint planning and implementation for improving police-youth relations”.
JASPEV is guided by a policy document entitled ‘Jamaica 2015’, a framework and action plan geared at charting the establishment of social policy. This document outlines what Jamaica needs to do in order to arrive at improved effectiveness, collaboration, and accountability in the delivery of social policy.
The project which supports the Public Sector Reform Programme (PSRP) and the reform of the social policy process, to make it more people-centred, in an effort to mainstream certain key principles in government, began in October 2002 and is grant funded by the British Government through the Department for International Development (DFID).