National Consultant - St. Lucia

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) through the Strengthening Evidence-based Decision Making for Citizen Security in the Caribbean (CARISECURE) Project seeks expert services to undertake a comparative institutional assessment of national data governance with specific focus on youth crime and violence statistical capacities. An assessment of youth insecurity and juvenile justice systems conducted by the USAID/Eastern and Southern Caribbean (ESC) across the Caribbean, highlighted the lack of standardized data on crime and violence and its causes. While raw data are available in different forms and at different stages of the criminal justice process, there exists wide diversity in how this is generated; the absence of clear and harmonized guidelines; and weak inter-institutional coordination and information sharing.

National consultations and assessments conducted by UNDP in the Eastern and Southern Caribbean also point to four interrelated challenges. These are: deficiency in evidence-based approaches to citizen security policymaking; the lack of reliable and comparable national and regional statistics; weak coordination at national, sub-regional and regional levels; and weak institutional capacities. It is against these challenges that the UNDP through the CARISECURE Project seeks to work with countries across the Eastern and Southern Caribbean (Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago) to bolster institutional capacity for evidence-based decision making targeted at youth crime and violence policymaking and programming.