Belize Crime Observatory reinforces journalists’ capacity to make effective use of citizen security data

On 20 January, the second and final session of the mass media training workshop was held in Belize. The Belize Crime Observatory (BCO) held the workshop in the context of the InfoSegura Regional Project, the first regional alliance between the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

The training provided mass media professionals with new data analysis tools to shed light on the state of citizen security and report on developments on public policies that are under implementation in that country. Over the course of two days, workshop participants strengthened their analytical skills to make more effective and robust use of data on insecurity and violence, in order to provide the public with disaggregated information, trends and concrete facts on the ascent or decline in violence over a given lapse of time.

The Ministry of Home Affairs and New Growth Industries seeks to build bridges to collaborate with the mass media in providing citizens with high quality analysis of the state of citizen security and promote awareness campaigns to help shed light on different expressions of violence.

The UNDP—through the InfoSegura Project and in partnership with USAID—has been supporting the Ministry of Home Affairs and New Growth Industries and its Belize Crime Observatory and other key partner agencies since May 2014, with the goal of enhancing data analysis on citizen security and justice in Belize.