The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is reaffirming its commitment to the Caribbean with the joint launch of three  Caribbean Basin Security Initiatives (CBSI) programs on 24 February, 2023 at the Harbour Club Hotel in Saint Lucia. Being implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, the Strengthening Evidence Based Decision Making for Citizen Security in the Caribbean (CariSECURE) 2.0 Project, one of the three, supports USAID’s strategy to reduce youth involvement in crime and violence, and strengthen counter Trafficking in Persons (TIP) efforts in the Caribbean. It employs a multi-pronged, human rights-based approach designed to improve national capacities to use evidence-based approaches to identify the root causes of youth crime and design policies, strategies, programmes and interventions.

Speaking at the launch, Acting Prime Minister of Saint Lucia, the Honourable Shawn A. Edwards, expressed his government’s commitment to support CariSECURE 2.0 in its efforts to fortify the capacities of youth-serving institutions, stating “it is in building and solidifying relationships with the United States government, the UNDP, etc. that we can make strides at a pace that ordinarily we wouldn’t have been able to make on our own because of the resource constraints we currently face as a government. I am hoping that by the end of the programme, St Lucia will be a much better place as a result of the interventions we’ve outlined to address some of the issues that confront our young people.”

Also addressing the audience of government officials, youth representatives and other stakeholders, United States Ambassador to Barbados, the Eastern Caribbean and the OECS, Ambassador Linda S. Taglialatela, noted, “The United States Government, through USAID, is very pleased to launch these three CBSI programmes in Saint Lucia. The programmes will focus on those young people who are most at risk, and engage them not just as passive recipients of assistance, but to discover and uncover their many abilities, to provide opportunities for them to use those assets and support their development into responsible, productive adults.”

The CariSECURE 2.0 activity will bolster state capacity to identify, screen, investigate and prosecute trafficking cases and provide resources and technical support to the island as well as to Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, and Trinidad and Tobago. The two other projects being implemented are the Opportunities to Advance and Support Youth for Success (OASYS) Project, and the Youth Resilience, Inclusion and Empowerment (Y-RIE) Project.