Having identified the provision of guidance, direction and leadership to the youth as critical to reversing the worrying trend of crime and violence, the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) will engage young people in the Cayman Islands on the subject of Citizen Security.

CDB will hold the 42^nd Annual Meeting of its Board of Governors in the Cayman Islands on May 23 and 24, 2012.  Just prior to that, on May 17, the Bank will host a youth forum under the theme:  Citizen Security and the Development Agenda.

Guest speakers will include Dr. April Bernard, Lecturer in Sociology and Deputy Dean (Distance and Outreach) in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of the West Indies – Cave Hill Campus in Barbados.

This forum, which is part of the Bank’s youth outreach programme called Vybzing, is open to young people  in the Cayman Islands aged  16-25. Another aspect of the programme in the Cayman Islands is a challenge to youth of the same age range to create a three-minute video on the subject of Citizen Security in the Community. The deadline for the submission of these videos is May 6.

The videos will be judged by a panel and the top three will earn cash prizes for the producers. There is also a People’s Choice category where visitors to the Vybzing Facebook page can vote for their favourite during the period May 8-13.

Participants in the Youth Forum will make a presentation on its outcomes to CDB’s Board of Governors at the closing ceremony for the Annual Meeting on May 24. The winning videographer’s work will also be screened at that time.

President of CDB, Dr. Warren Smith, is on record as identifying the impact of crime and violence as both a macro-economic and a socioeconomic concern, noting that it weighs heavily on the pace of growth and development by redirecting scarce resources to limit its impact and by deterring critical investment in other areas.

The Vybzing Youth Programme is being held in collaboration with the University College of the Cayman Islands, and the Forum will take place at The Westin Casuarina Resort and Spa.

The CDB also announced they will be hosting the First Caribbean Growth Forum Advisory Committee Meeting in a press release as follows:

The first meeting of the Steering Committee and Advisory Board of the Caribbean Growth Forum (CGF) will be hosted by the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) at its headquarters in Barbados on Friday, May 4, 2012.  It is scheduled to begin at 9:00 a.m. in the CDB Conference Centre.

The Forum is an initiative being led by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the World Bank and CDB, in close collaboration with the United Kingdom Agency for International Development (DFID) and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).  Its objective is to identify policies and initiatives aimed at inducing growth and creating jobs in the Caribbean region through analytical work, knowledge exchange and inclusive dialogue.

CGF aims to provide a platform for dialogue around the growth challenge, with a view to identifying solutions that inspire action.  The Forum will engage a broad group of stakeholders, reaching beyond the traditional stakeholders (the public sector and academia) to other critical players in the dialogue on economic growth including the private sector, the youth, civil society and the Caribbean Diaspora.

A Memorandum of Understanding between the World Bank, CDB and the IDB will be signed during the CDB Annual Meetings on May 24, 2012, in the Cayman Islands.