PIOJ Growth-Inducement Strategy - Planning Institute of Jamaica
PIOJ Growth-Inducement Strategy - Planning Institute of Jamaica
PIOJ Growth-Inducement Strategy - Planning Institute of Jamaica
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In this context, the proposed Community Renewal Programme is expected to provide an<br />
essential antidote to the cancer <strong>of</strong> crime by <strong>of</strong>fering positive alternatives to illegal<br />
activity in 100 targeted communities throughout the island. Combined with other<br />
proposed measures for urban-regional development and strengthening the capacity <strong>of</strong><br />
MSMEs, these efforts serve also to meet the need for levelling the playing field,<br />
broadening participation in the growth process, and combating the social<br />
marginalization that affects many <strong>of</strong> our citizens.<br />
Section 3: Components <strong>of</strong> the <strong>Growth</strong> <strong>Strategy</strong>; paragraph/item 5 (<strong>of</strong> 6) take a different<br />
tack; specifically:<br />
Spearhead the drive for economic growth with an immediate and concerted effort to<br />
ramp up the Community Renewal Programme to unlock creativity and entrepreneurship<br />
in targeted communities throughout the island as a foundation for organic and sustained<br />
development <strong>of</strong> such communities and as a positive alternative to illegal options (hence,<br />
as an antidote to crime). In combination with other local and regional initiatives by<br />
government and private sector working in partnership (e.g. Downtown Kingston<br />
Redevelopment) and a strengthened programme <strong>of</strong> on-lending to MSMEs, provide<br />
thereby an holistic and integrated programme <strong>of</strong> social inclusion that levels the playing<br />
field, broadens the base <strong>of</strong> participation in the growth process, builds confidence, and<br />
allows buy-in by stakeholders.<br />
Then, the <strong>Growth</strong> <strong>Strategy</strong> Matrix at page 14 places the CRP in the context <strong>of</strong> crime<br />
reduction and the last item on the matrix Urban/Regional Development, brings forward<br />
the CRP and development projects, namely, Downtown Kingston Redevelopment and<br />
West Kingston Commercial Lifestyles Centre. And so the CRP as part <strong>of</strong> the growth<br />
strategy (that is private sector led) has an inbuilt ambivalence:<br />
On the one hand, it sounds a bit like containment and appeasement, and as is<br />
explicitly stated an ‘antidote to crime’ more strongly and <strong>of</strong>ten than an according<br />
<strong>of</strong> the social, economic and cultural rights <strong>of</strong> the people; an according <strong>of</strong> the<br />
respect that is due; an acknowledgement <strong>of</strong> the sterling contribution ‘the people’<br />
are making through their intellectual capital, creative imagination, entrepreneurial<br />
zeal and bent; perseverance through unspeakable odds and exclusion; athletic<br />
gifts; inventiveness<br />
From such a view <strong>of</strong> our people the CR would be constructed in a human rights<br />
framework explicitly setting out to accord the right to access and the entitlements<br />
<strong>of</strong> a significant percentage <strong>of</strong> the citizens <strong>of</strong> <strong>Jamaica</strong> whose lives reflect the<br />
present-day legacy <strong>of</strong> sinister and cynical political processes that<br />
corralled/tribalised and impoverished as a strategy to enforce dependence on, first,<br />
political patronage then the patronage <strong>of</strong> Dons<br />
The enterprise is to break the stranglehold <strong>of</strong> a paternalistic relationship between<br />
the MP and citizen, to appropriately identify the differentiated relative position<br />
and condition <strong>of</strong> life <strong>of</strong> community members – males, females and among them -<br />
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