Above: UNDP Administrator Helen Clark (Photo: OPM Trinidad)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Trinidad and Tobago and the United Nations Development Programme held talks this week focusing on the launch of the new Caribbean Human Development Report and a proposed partnership on security.

Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar held talks with Helen Clark, the United Nations Undersecretary-General and Administrator of the UNDP at the Diplomatic Centre in St Ann’s.

“I pledge my support for the proposed partnership between the UNDP and the Ministry of National Security to enhance the implementation of the Citizen Security Programme,” Persad-Bissessar said. “I strongly believe that the findings of this report can further inform my government’s steps towards improving citizen security as well as promote academic research on this issue locally, regionally and internationally.”

A major focus of the report was on the growing problem of crime in the region.

“This report stresses the need to rethink our approaches to tackling crime and violence and providing security on the ground,” Clark said. “We need to follow approaches centered on citizen security, which addresses the causes of this recent increase in violent crime — including social, economic and political exclusion.”

Trinidad also signed an agreement with the UNDP on the adoption of a corporate responsibility policy during the UNDP’s visit.

Clark concluded her trip to Trinidad on Thursday.