Excerpt from Observer column published 6 FEB 2017
by Jean Lowrie-Chin
The UWI Research days last week gave us
myriad examples of the power of research to improve our lives. In the areas of medicine, agricultural
science, social and environmental research, we can see its impact, and the
benefits it would offer to Jamaica’s public sector transformation process.
At a ‘Policy Research Impact Forum’, Rickert
Allen, Senior General Manager at NCB said that his company underwent radical
transformation since 2001, turning to research to develop a strategy that would
take the once-failing bank to its number one position in Jamaica today.
“There is a lot of research taking place,
but no one is reading it,” said Mona Business lecturer Dr. Kadawame Knife.
Interestingly, he noted that although there was not a strong research culture
in Jamaica, the Jamaica Constabulary Force was one of the organizations that
uses this resource to inform their strategy. I recall a group of young men on
Orange Street in downtown Kingston making Clarke’s shoes knock-offs being
rounded up, luckily by officers who had been trained in community policing.
Instead of locking them up, the policemen recognised their talent and took them
to the Jamaica Business Development Centre (JBDC) for guidance. With the help of JBDC and the Digicel
Foundation, they are on their way to becoming young entrepreneurs, and Dr Knife
who has been their mentor, can show you the excellent shoes they made for him.
In a spirited contribution, Prof. Dale
Webber said that it was the in depth environmental research of the Kingston
Harbour done by himself, his wife, Prof. Mona Webber and 25 graduate students
that resulted in its rehabilitation. Their study showed that the bacterial content
of the harbour’s water was 250% above the accepted level, resulting in a stop
to careless sewage disposal and the construction of the Soapberry facility. Dr.
Webber said that his team’s research on the Kingston Harbour was so
significant, that an entire bulletin of the Marine Science publication was
dedicated to their findings.
Chairman of the UWI Research Days
Committee, Professor Denise Eldemire Shearer harks back to a ‘policy wall’ her
Mona Wellness Centre created years ago. It was out of this that the life-saving
Jamaica Drugs for the Elderly Programme (JADEP) was developed.
We should therefore support the call of
the Statistical Institute of Jamaica (STATIN) to co-operate with their
personnel who will be interviewing over 4000 families to establish their level
of spend, and other key social and financial indicators. It is only by gathering and analysing this
data that planning for Poverty Alleviation Through Health and Education (PATH),
low income housing, health and education can produce the results we so dearly
want.
We must be clear that this rash
of murders and crime cannot end with the treatment of symptoms, but with the
use of strategic, energetic social reform to cure this horrible national
condition.
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