Dr Terrance Drew, Prime Minister of St Kitts and Nevis says that an evidence-based approach is needed to effectively tackle the crime problem in the region.

Drew who was speaking on Monday (April 17) at the crime symposium in Trinidad and Tobago said that“The Caribbean has a proud track record of solving and mitigating major public health issues through robust, evidence-guided intervention programmes. We had to deal with AIDS and HIV, not as individual countries, but we dealt with it as a region with evidence-based approaches and we have success.

We are also dealing with NCDs (non-communicable diseases) and we are dealing with that issue from an evidence-based perspective. And today, we are taking that bold step and that is why I am optimistic because we have seen the evidence and we are willing to put the political will, using that evidence, to solve violence from a public health perspective.”

The two-day crime symposium (from April 17 to 18) is being held under the theme “Crime and Violence as a Public Health Issue – The Crime Challenge” and seeks to promote dialogue and regional action aimed at violence reduction and crime prevention. 

Drew also reminded the gathering of the far-reaching effects of crime and violence and their associated impact on economies. 

He said, “Public health and security experts can produce maps of violence hotspots. They know the demographics and geographics of clusters. There are graphs of incidence versus time which depict a series of epidemiological curves. Therefore, the violence challenge in the Caribbean appears to be well characterised as a public health issue with ominous social and economic implications. Neither good health nor development is possible in a climate of violence.”

“I regard this Regional Symposium, therefore, as a coalition of the willing. Notwithstanding the delays because of a pandemic, there is a window of opportunity to move the needle now to solutions. Our people must see and must feel solutions now,” he said.

“From today’s presentations by the Heads of Government, the interactions and the erudite presentations they would have made tell me that the political will is there,” Drew added.