In 2018, after many years of working with them on a project basis, I joined the team of the Caribbean Policy Research Institute (CAPRI), an independent public policy think tank based at the University of the West Indies, as the director of research, where I am involved in every aspect of the research and writing of our policy reports on the economy, governance, the environment, and social issues.
CAPRI’s origins are in a two-year research project (2006-8) that sought to understand why Jamaica had such a spectacular record of economic underperformance despite its promise and potential. I was a part of that project, which culminated in a report called “Taking Responsibility” whose main conclusion was that Jamaica’s underdevelopment owed to poor policy decisions, policy decisions that were neither evidence-based, nor data-driven. The project was then institutionalized as a think tank, and since 2008 has gained enviable recognition and credibility as a respected, independent think tank that produces solid evidence-informed research on Jamaica’s pressing social and economic problems.