Urban Renewal 2.0 is a direct response to past and current problems facing a number of inner city communities in The Bahamas ...such as crime, poor housing conditions, joblessness, illiteracy, homelessness, and other social ills that contribute to crime and anti-social behavior

What Urban Renewal 2.0 Will Mean For The Bahamas
tribune242


The commissioner of police's statement on Urban Renewal:

THE flagship Urban Renewal 2.0 Programme is a direct response to past and current problems facing a number of inner city communities in the Bahamas such as crime, poor housing conditions, joblessness, illiteracy, homelessness, and other social ills that contribute to crime and anti-social behavior.

The project is the brainchild of the Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas Perry Gladstone Christie and it has the full support of the commissioner of police, the executive management team, and all members of the Royal Bahamas Police Force.

The tenets of Urban Renewal 2.0 are included in the Commissioner's Policing Plan for 2012 and are clearly delineated under priorities one, two and three.

The Urban renewal Community Based Policing programme is one of the most ambitious crime prevention programmes in the Bahamas.

It is a comprehensive approach to crime, antisocial behavior, and community safety.

It emphasises both innovation and integration of efforts and resources by a wide range of agencies and the community at large.

Objectives of the Urban Renewal Project

• To prevent crime and reduce the fear of crime in the community.


• To identify and tackle the main causes of the social conditions which promote the occurrence of crime and deviant behavior.


• To examine and improve the quality of life and the social and environmental conditions of high crime communities.


• To involve the community in problem-solving and empower citizens to play an active role in their communities.


• To identify the problems facing our young people and to engage them in positive activities and programmes geared toward making them productive citizens.

A brief history of the Urban Renewal Pilot Project

Urban Renewal was first launched as a pilot project in the constituency of Prime Minister Perry Christie, called Farm Road, in June 2002.

The community was identified as the pilot area because it showed trends that were prevalent in other communities in the Bahamas such as crime, social ills and urban decay.

Within just six short weeks of its inception, police officers assigned to the Farm Road Project visited every household and business establishment in the community.

They collected data and intelligence on environmental concerns, health issues, housing problems and criminal activities.

The police team was later joined by representatives from the Department of Social Services, the Ministry of Housing, Health Services and the Ministry of Works.

The team removed derelict vehicles, organised the demolition of abandoned buildings, dismantled street drug peddling groups, and arrested a number of prolific offenders. These initiatives resulted in a significant reduction in crime.

Within one year of the project's inception, the team established computer literacy centres, a youth marching band, a community development association and the national Urban Renewal Commission.

It also set up similar projects in eight other areas of New Providence, five in Grand Bahama and one in Abaco.

The team was awarded the Association of Caribbean Commissioners of Police Motorola Community Policing Award in May 2003 and won two other community policing awards from the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP).

Role of the police in Urban Renewal

Members of the Royal Bahamas Police Force who are assigned to the Urban Renewal 2.0 Programme have an expanded scope of police work which includes crime, the fear of crime, quality of life offences, social and physical disorder, and community decay.

These officers are expected to use a full range of talents, skills and abilities to not only prevent and interdict crime, but to also enlarge their role and become community problem-solvers.

About community policing

Community policing focuses on bringing the police and citizens together to prevent crime and solve neighborhood problems. In community policing, the emphasis is on preventing crime.

Preventing crime is a big job. The police are more effective when they can depend on residents for help.

Community policing calls for a commitment to improving the quality of life in neighborhoods. Community Resource Officers (CRO) look to residents for help in solving neighborhood problems.

In essence, community policing gives citizens more control over the quality of life in their community.

General duties and activities of the police under the programme

• Directed patrol - patrols are specific and intelligence driven, designed to deal with existing and emerging problems in the community. These patrols can be done on foot or in vehicles to facilitate communication and the building of relationships between the officers and community members.


• Community involvement - Urban Renewal officers must build trusting relationships and partnerships with community members to address their specific problems.


• Identifying and prioritising problems - community members are encouraged provide officers with information about the problems they face and work with them prioritise issues and problems.


• Reporting - the Urban Renewal officer must share information with other police officers as well as the RBPF generally and with special sections (DEU, CDU, CIB, SIB, et cetera) about the specifics of his community.


• Organising - organising activities oriented to specific problems and working to enhance the overall quality of life in the community.


• Communicating - there are both formal and informal sessions aimed at educating people about crime prevention and other issues as well as managing communication with the media.


• Conflict resolution - the Urban Renewal officer mediates, negotiates and resolves conflicts formally and informally (and challenges people to begin resolving problems on their own).
• Referrals - the officer refers problems to specialised agencies.


• Visiting - Urban Renewal officers make frequent visits to homes and businesses to recruit help and to educate.


• Recruiting and supervising volunteers - the Urban Renewal officer works with volunteers to address social problems affecting the community.


• Proactive projects - the Urban Renewal officer works along with the community to solve both long-term and short-term problems aimed at improving the quality of life.


• Targeting special groups - Urban Renewal police officers will focus on special groups in the community such as the elderly, youth, women, physically challenged persons and the homeless.


• Targeting disorder - Urban Renewal officers place specific emphasis on social and physical disorders and the degradation of neighbourhoods.


• Networking with the private sector - the Urban Renewal officer actively communicates with and solicits the assistance of the business community for services and volunteer work.


• Get to know people - the Urban Renewal officers form relationships with residents so as to learn about their concerns and to build confidence and trust between citizens and the police.




June 05, 2012

Bahamas Government Debt To Worsen

GOVT DEBT TO WORSEN
By CANDIA DAMES ~ Guardian News Editor ~ candia@nasguard.com:


A rising government deficit and persistent revenue vulnerability will continue to drive government debt up in the near future, according to international credit rating agency Standard & Poor's, which says in a report that government debt as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) will climb to more than 50 percent by next year.

The report fleshes out the details of the agency's initial assessment of the Bahamian economy and the fiscal and monetary conditions revealed late in 2009.

While the expanded report points to increasing debt levels — as did the initial assessment — all the news is not so gloomy.

As it regards unemployment, the agency projects that joblessness will drop from 14.5 percent this year to 12 percent next year. A further decline to 10 percent is projected in 2012.

But S&P said foreign direct investments will slow further this year, and it repeated previous projections that the economy will likely decline by 0.5 percent in 2010 and grow in 2011 for the first time in three years. The growth next year is expected to be 2 percent.

While debt levels are projected to remain pressured in the immediate future, the agency made the point that current government debt levels temporarily provide some space for fiscal weakening compared to similarly rated countries. Compared to many of its peers, The Bahamas' debt levels are in a favorable position, the report noted.

"We project debt levels to rise, but domestic markets will provide most of the financing," said S&P.

The agency projects that general government debt — which stood at 32.8 percent in 2006 — will climb to 49.5 percent this year, move up to 51.9 percent next year and increase further to 52.4 percent in 2012.

Minister of State for Finance Zhivargo Laing noted last night that the new report provides a more comprehensive story on what had been published by Standard & Poor's late last year.

Regarding the debt projections, Laing said the government will be able to comment more fully on what its views are on where the country will likely be when the budget communication is presented next month.

Asked whether there is cause for concern as it regards debt levels, he said, "Any sound fiscal management program rests on wanting to control debt to the extent possible. In fact, nobody would borrow if they didn't have to, but where it is necessary it has been a part of the government's fiscal program for some time.

"In an extraordinary economic climate there's some extraordinary borrowing. We now have weathered the worst of it so we're now seeking to return to levels of borrowing and deficit spending that are more in keeping with what has been our objective in times past. So to the extent that we have no difficulty servicing our debt there is no concern. To the extent that we want to ensure that we don't continue to grow the debt to a place where that could be a problem one is always concerned to do that."

According to the report, the general government deficit rose sharply and likely will average 4.7 percent of GDP in fiscal year 2009/2010 and 2010/2011. General government deficits averaged 1.4 percent of GDP from 2000 to 2007.

The report explained that increased spending against a narrow revenue base, which has declined amid the economic recession, led to larger deficits.

S&P said the higher deficits reflect government policy to alleviate the social impact of the economic recession and to support growth. The report points to the government's unemployment benefit program, the temporary jobs program and accelerated capital works projects.

The agency said, "Deficit financing comes predominantly from domestic sources, a credit strength for The Bahamas. The structure of the debt remains favorable, though it has recently relied more on foreign debt. Domestic debt accounted for 90 percent of total debt in 2007, which declined slightly to 88 percent in 2008 and further to 80 percent in 2009."

S&P pointed out that the government had hoped to receive between US$200 million and US$300 million in proceeds from the sale of a 51 percent stake in the Bahamas Telecommunications Company in the first half of 2010 to alleviate financing needs.

"However, the government has once again postponed the privatization following seemingly disappointment with the bids and prices offered at the end of 2009," the report said.

The ratings agency said it expects foreign direct investments (FDI) to remain low in 2010.

"FDI totaled US$600 million during the first nine months of 2009, compared with US$1 billion in full-year 2008," S&P said. "We expect FDI to slow further in 2010 as tourism projects progress slowly."

The report said FDI projects that appear to have staying power are those that eventually will serve high-end customers or a niche group of tourists, as well as those that will provide residential tourism products.

The agency said, "Once buoyant prospects for a major expansion of tourism projects, totaling more than US$10 billion over the next five to 10 years, are more subdued."

In the report S&P repeats a controversial statement it made in a previous report.

It said, "After posting real GDP growth of 5.7 percent in 2005, momentum slowed sharply and then the economy contracted. In 2007, the increase in real GDP was a mere 0.7 percent as growth was interrupted, first by the elections and then by the new administration's protracted period of reviewing contracts after it came into office in May 2007.

"The review of $80 million worth of contracts and the eventual cancellation of a $23 million public contract for the straw market negatively affected investor sentiment and brought substantial disruption to the contracts' activity."

It noted that the straw market project did not move back on track until December 2009, when the government signed a construction contract.

As noted in its summary release at the end of 2009, the agency placed The Bahamas' sovereign credit rating at BBB+/Stable/A-2. This compares to the A-/Negative/A-2 rating it gave in November 2008.

Regarding the December 2009 rating, S&P said, "The stable outlook reflects Standard & Poor's expectation that the government will gradually reduce its fiscal deficit and will maintain a generally stable external financing profile. We do not expect The Bahamas' tourism product to improve sharply until the U.S. economic (and U.S. consumer) recovery has consolidated."

April 30, 2010

thenassauguardian

Bahamas Blog International

The Latest Unemployment Numbers Released in The Bahamas

The unemployment rate for women in The Bahamas showed a slight increase, whereas that of men a slight decrease

Unemployment Rate Unchanged

 

 

By Candia Dames

Nassau, The Bahamas

28 October 2005

 

 

 

 

 

Officials of the Department of Statistics released new numbers on Thursday that show that the unemployment rate over the last year has remained unchanged, standing at 10.2 percent.

Officials said the total number of unemployed during the "reference" or "snapshot" week in April, stood at 18,175, an increase of 185 people over 2004.

The unemployment rate in Grand Bahama was actually higher than the national rate, standing at 11 percent, up from 9.3 percent in 2004, according to the report.

The new data shows that there were 3,000 people in Grand Bahama recorded as unemployed, up from 2,465 in 2004, but officials said that was not enough to drive the national rate beyond the 10.2 percent recorded last year.

Cypreanna Winters, a statistician at the department, recognized that the results may come as a surprise to some people, but she added, "We are definition driven.  Of course we know people wouldn’t agree with us."

The International Labour Organization (ILO) defines employed persons as, "All persons 15 years of age and over who work for pay anytime during the reference week or who worked without pay for at least one hour in a family operated business or a person who was temporarily absent from their regular job because of vacation, illness etc."

The ILO defines unemployed persons as, "All persons 15 years of age and over who did not work or have a job from which they were temporarily absent during the reference week, but were actively looking for work in the four weeks prior to the survey week and were able and willing to work."

Discouraged workers were defined as "All persons who may or may not have worked before, are able and willing to work, but are not actively seeking work because they believe they would not find it.  They are not considered to be a part of the labour force."

When asked why the hundreds of people who lost their jobs – particularly in Grand Bahama – following hurricanes Frances and Jeanne last year did not push the unemployment rate up, Ms. Winters explained that many of them would either have found jobs or are classified as discouraged workers.

Officials said they do not count discouraged workers as part of the unemployed although they too are jobless.

"There is a thin line between an unemployed person and a discouraged worker," Ms. Winters said.  "We have to be guided by our [internationally-accepted] definitions."

Assistant Director of the Department of Statistics Leona Wilson reported that while the national unemployment figure is 10.2 percent, there is a noted difference when examined by sex.

The unemployment rate for women showed a slight increase, whereas that of men a slight decrease.

Unemployment among women was recorded at 11.2 percent, up from 11 percent in 2004; and the unemployment among men was recorded at 9.2 percent, down from 9.4 percent in 2004.

Ms. Wilson also reported that preliminary results show that 2,375 persons were added to the labour force in 2005, an increase of 1.3 percent over the previous year.  This includes unemployed and employed persons.

Women were the main contributor to this growth (1,485 compared to men who numbered 890).

The data also indicated that 2,190 of the 2,375 persons got jobs and females outnumbered the males at 1,180, compared to 1,010.

Over the last 10 years, the unemployment rate was at its lowest point in 2001, when it stood at 6.9 percent.  It jumped to 9.1 percent in 2002, climbed to 10.8 percent in 2003, and showed a slight drop to 10.2 percent in 2004.

Over the last decade, the unemployment rate was at its highest point in 1996 when it stood at 11.5 percent, up from 10.9 percent the previous year.

In 1992, the unemployment rate was 14.8 percent.  The unemployment rate was highest in an independent Bahamas in 1975 when it stood at 21.2 percent.