KINGSTON, Jamaica— The Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) has launched its Community Renewal Index (CRI 2020), which aims to improve access to empirical data to inform decision-making for community development.

The Index is an initiative under the entity’s Community Renewal Programme, which benefits from capacity development support from the European Union (EU).

Speaking at the launch on Tuesday (March 30), during the virtual EU and Government of Jamaica conference on results-based and people-centred development on March 30, Director General of the PIOJ, Dr Wayne Henry, said that the CRI will help address the gap in available data at the community level. 

He noted that such statistics have never been consistently available or detailed enough to make certain policy decisions.

Dr Henry said that the Index, which is in keeping with the agency’s thrust for results-based management and people-centred development, is “a tool that may be used by government, private sector, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and international development partners to achieve more effective and better targeted interventions across Jamaica”.

“This should contribute significantly to the wider development of Jamaica, as it supports the ‘leaving no one behind’ agenda,” Henry noted.

Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist with the Community Renewal Programme, Marsha Watson-Hylton, explained that the CRI is a single number that establishes the ranking or position of communities on a renewal continuum, from 0 (least renewed) to 100 (most renewed).

It consists of five dimensions and 14 indicators by which the communities are scored and then ranked. The five dimensions are Prosperity, Security, Health and Environment, and Cohesion and Justice Mechanisms.

Watson-Hylton noted that the Index was designed specifically “for our volatile and vulnerable communities to enable us to ascertain whether or not they are moving towards renewal status”.

Of the 100 most volatile and vulnerable communities in Jamaica, about 43 are in Kingston and St Andrew. The Index was applied to 17 of these in 2020 to establish a baseline for future reference as to their renewal status.

These are Springfield Gardens, Hannah Town, Jones Town, Fletcher’s Land, Tivoli Gardens, Majesty Gardens, Seaview Gardens, Rae Town, Franklyn Town, Denham Town, Trench Town, Delacree Pen, Greater Allman Town, Greenwich Town, Parade Gardens, Rose Gardens and Central Downtown.

Watson-Hylton said that of the 17 communities, 11 are among the 25 most volatile and vulnerable in Jamaica.

“We used 2019 data from our various data sources as the basis for calculating the Index.  This version of the Index, because it is being applied for the first time, provides a baseline for us to monitor the progress of these communities towards renewal status,” she noted.

The CRI is to be produced every two years and will be utilised by entities like the Social Development Commission (SDC) and its partner agencies to help communities coalesce around a common goal for their development.

The SDC’s Deputy Executive Director, Juanita Reid, for her part, said that the CRI “provides an added dimension as to how we can use empirical data to target communities, prioritise their development challenges to ensure that our communities are transformed”.

 “I do believe that it will be used by all our ministries, departments and agencies, including the SDC, to help us address some of the challenges our communities face. It also provides a framework for us to work together to monitor and evaluate the development status of our communities and to ensure that the investment we make in community development is really sustainable,” she added.

For more information on the methodology used, community-level reports and dimension reports, persons may email the Community Renewal Programme at crp@pioj.gov.jm.

The EU and GOJ conference was held under the theme ‘Working Together for Inclusive People Development – Strengthening Country Capacity in Results-Based Management Partnerships’.