The programme, which is being co-ordinated by the PIOJ, will address poor housing, poor infrastructure, weak community governance and the lack of coordination of social intervention programmes.

The pilot phase, expected to last a year, will focus on two main communities within Kingston's inner city. Following the pilot phase, it will be rolled out on a much wider scale and is expected to impact some 100 communities across Jamaica, over a ten-year period. It is anticipated that it will result in the transformation of the social and physical structures of the communities, in addition to the socio-economic situations of the citizens.

"At the end of the programme, we will have cleaner and more habitable environments, better sanitation and better public and individual infrastructure," says social sector specialist, Plan Development Unit at the PIOJ, Charles Clayton. "We will also have significant advances for our youth, because many of our unattached youth who form part of the crime syndicate will be participating in mainstream activities, rather than in criminal enterprises."

Clayton assures that although the project has not yet been officially launched, much is being achieved behind the scenes. The PIOJ is still working assiduously to finalise the communities that will form the basis of the programme. He notes, that there have been some challenges.

"The main reason we have not yet selected all the communities, is that the data that we are looking at is inconsistent in some cases, and needs cleaning in other cases before it can be applied to get the best results across the board," he admits.

He says the PIOJ has set criteria that will help to identify targeted communities, and will be relying on poverty maps to finalise its selection. "We will overlay the data on the poverty map to see which communities turn out the most highly rated, in terms of the criteria we have selected. This will measure volatility and vulnerability," he says.

The social sector specialist indicates that following confirmation from Prime Minister Bruce Golding, the project will commence with the communities of West and Central Kingston.

The broad remit of the CRP is to support the development of communities in a holistic way, and target six specific areas of vulnerability, including governance, social transformation, safety and justice, youth development, socio-economic development and sustainable physical transformation.