Use more data-driven information to form policies – Lyew-Ayee Jr

Dr Parris Lyew-Ayee Jr, executive director of the Mona GeoInformatics Institute, says policymakers should use more data-driven information to make decisions.

This he said can be done for the country’s crime-fighting efforts; to craft more impactful messages to address the road fatalities and providing easier access to COVID-19 vaccination centres to the Jamaican population to improve the country’s vaccination rate.

“…We have to capture the data and then build policies to address them,” he said while making a presentation at the Council of Voluntary Social Service’s (CVSS) National Volunteer Conference that was held recently.

Making reference to the Private Sector of Jamaica (PSOJ) COVID-19 Jamaica Response Fund, which was spearheaded by the CVSS and saw 83,000 beneficiaries received 73,000 long-duration care packages, he said the distribution was informed by data.

“Every dime spent was objectively used for what it was supposed to be used for, and there was no redirection of funds and we were able to do this through the application of data,” which he said assisted in identifying the vulnerable communities that received the care packages.

Another project that was undertaken by Mona GeoInformatics Institute was the private sector vaccine initiative. Dr Lyew-Ayee said the data tracked the locations of the vaccine sites, distances of people to a vaccine sites, convenience and lack of convenience and the number of persons vaccinated.

He suggested that this data mapping can assist in planning campaigns, which are more targeted as opposed to a campaign not guided by critical data. “The data is there for the experts to use,” he informed.

“There seems to be an allergy to data. We are going to need to get over that fear right now, and part of that seems to manifest in the vaccination hesitancy where the science is there but we seem to be fighting it,” he pointed out.

DATA TO CHANGE ROAD SAFETY NARRATIVE

Dr Lyew-Ayee also noted that Mona Geoinformatics has mapped 22 years’ worth of road fatalities and shown how patterns have changed over time. “The data should be used to change the current narrative of road safety. Instead of deaths being treated as road statistics, we need to be proactive in the messaging. We need to focus on people who are still living, who will be dead by the end of the year if there isn’t a change in road behaviour,” he said.