On November 11^th, 2020 UNDP Suriname provided personal protective equipment (PPE) to the Ministry of Justice and Police. The supplies including 1330 gowns, 500 safety glasses and goggles and 2000 pair of gloves were funded through The Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the United Kingdom (UK FCO) through the CariSECURE Programme.

Dr. Margaret Jones Williams, Deputy Resident Representative of UNDP engaged with Mr. Kenneth Amoksi, Minister of Justice and Police in a Virtual Handover of the items. The Ministry of Justice and Police is mandated with the national coordination of efforts to control the spread of the COVID-19 virus and the Minister expressed his gratitude to UNDP for the support provided to the country in general and his Ministry specifically. Police officers are on the frontline keeping the public safe and this protective equipment will help police officers to stay safe while they carry out their duties amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

UNDP Suriname has a longstanding working relationship with the Ministry of Justice and Police which includes work done in the areas of Human Rights, Legal Access and Citizen Security and Dr. Jones Williams reiterated the commitment of UNDP to continue to provide technical assistance in these areas to the Ministry and to Suriname. Dr. Jones Williams specifically thanked the Minister for the good partnership with his Ministry on the implementation of the CariSECURE project which seeks to improve youth crime and violence policy-making and programming in the Southern and Eastern Caribbean through the use of quality, comparable and reliable national citizen security information. Earlier this year, in June, UNDP also through the CariSECURE programme handed over 4,900 COVID-19 PPE masks to the Suriname Police Force.