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Birth cohort studies across the world have yielded information that has been used to inform policy and programme decisions that have improved the health and well-being of populations. A few such studies have been conducted in low- and middle-income countries due to funding, methodological and other challenges. This paper briefly reviews the methods of comprehensive birth cohort studies with extensive follow-up of participants through the life course conducted in low- and middle-income countries. It then reviews the first Jamaican birth cohort study of 1986 and discusses the methodological advances in implementing JA KIDS, the second Jamaican birth cohort study conducted in 2011. The aims and methods of JA KIDS are described in detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hazards cause huge social disruptions and economic losses each year. Community disaster resilience relies on the capacity of critical infrastructure systems to maintain acceptable levels of functionality during a disruptive event and to recover promptly after the event. A proper predisaster risk mitigation planning framework can aid communities by working in advance to understand the preexisting local needs, identify the leaders, form partnerships, establish resources, and seize opportunities to increase community disaster resilience. Although numerous theoretical studies exist on developing models to support infrastructure predisaster risk mitigation, these models have not been properly incorporated into the decision-making process in existing studies. This lack of incorporation impedes the transfer of theoretical knowledge to practical policymaking. High-level predisaster infrastructure risk mitigation decisions for multiple infrastructure systems are especially in need of such an illustration due to the complexity introduced by the scale. This paper defines the interdependent infrastructure risk mitigation (IIRM) problem in a risk-informed decision-making framework and illustrates the entire decision-making process using a case study on predisaster risk mitigation planning of the interdependent critical infrastructure systems in Jamaica. This region is vulnerable to natural hazards but has received little attention in the literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines how evaluability assessments can be designed and conducted to generate meaningful and actionable results for reducing youth crime in Jamaica. It draws on case illustrations from the 2021 'Testing, Testing' CAPRI research study report to highlight the nexus between research and evaluation and promote adopting practices that can enhance the quality and relevance of evaluations conducted within the Caribbean region and beyond. The findings suggest that data needed to inform evaluation and evidenced-based policymaking remain limited despite re-energised regional and global efforts to address this challenge. Particularly, low data quality, production, and use continue to hinder measuring progress on the Sustainable Development Goals. The article, therefore, offers an accessible decolonising framework for understanding, supporting and critically assessing how inertia within the context of evaluation practice can be challenged. Concrete suggestions for action include using local knowledge and underutilised techniques such as evaluability assessments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Richter M.S., Mill J., Muller C.E., Kahwa E., Etowa J., Dawkins P. & Hepburn C. (2013) Nurses' engagement in AIDS policy development. International Nursing Review 60, 52-58 Background: A multidisciplinary team of 20 researchers and research users from six countries - Canada, Jamaica, Barbados, Kenya, Uganda and South Africa - are collaborating on a 5-year (2007-12) program of research and capacity building project. This program of research situates nurses as leaders in building capacity and promotes collaborative action with other health professionals and decision-makers to improve health systems for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) nursing care . One of the projects within this program of research focused on the influence of workplace policies on nursing care for individuals and families living with HIV. Nurses are at the forefront of HIV prevention and AIDS care in these countries but have limited involvement in related policy decisions and development. In this paper, we present findings related to the barriers and facilitators for nurses' engagement in policymaking. Methods: A participatory action research design guided the program of research. Purposive sampling was used to recruit 51 nurses (unit managers, clinic and healthcare managers, and senior nurse officers) for interviews. Findings: Participants expressed the urgent need to develop policies related to AIDS care. The need to raise awareness and to 'protect' not only the workers but also the patients were critical reason to develop policies. Nurses in all of the participating countries commented on their lack of involvement in policy development. Lack of communication from the top down and lack of information sharing were mentioned as barriers to participation in policy development. Resources were often not available to implement the policy requirement. Strong support from the management team is necessary to facilitate nurses involvement in policy development. Conclusions: The findings of this study clearly express the need for nurses and all other stakeholders to mobilize nurses' involvement in policy development. Long-term and sustained actions are needed to address gaps on the education, research and practice level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper summarises the findings of my doctoral thesis on the development of Jamaica's first rights-based disability policy: The National Policy for Persons with Disabilities 2000. The research had two main aims. First through conducting a retrospective case study, was to construct a history of the national policy's development, which was made possible by a series of events. Second, was to explore through using Easton's thesis, that policy is developed within an extra- and intra- societal environment in order to investigate how macro, meso and micro factors have influenced the policy-making process. The thesis synthesises Easton's systems approach to policy-making with Lasswell's classic stagist approach as a tool for discussing the policy-making process in Jamaica. I argue that a combination of macro, meso and micro factors created an 'opportunity' for the national policy's development, which represents a paradigm shift in Jamaican disability policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Issues of local governance have dominated Caribbean policy agenda for the past two decades, prompting considerable thought and action on local government reform by scholars, local government practitioners and policy makers, alike. No reforms have been as ubiquitous as those of local government. Permitted by an international reformist agenda, local government reform policy is linked positively to efforts to redress incapacities of public management and administration. This article examines conceptual and empirical issues relating to implementation of local government reform in two Caribbean countries, Jamaica and Trinidad. It analyses how the vision for local governance is articulated through specific reform taxonomies and argues that, although local government reform is normatively a policy aimed at fundamental changes in intergovernmental relations, in Jamaica and Trinidad reform has led merely to adjustments in the internal administration of local government. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]