New UB Policy Institute Pushes for Research‑Driven Governance

Belize’s newest public policy institute is already moving fast. The Belize Policy Research Institute at the University of Belize (BELPRI‑UB), launched in 2024, is pushing to make evidence‑driven decision‑making the norm across government. Executive Director Dr. Dylan Vernon says the past year has been intense and productive. BELPRI‑UB is working to ensure that policies, from the national budget to transport, land, and social issues, are shaped by solid research that people can access and understand. He argues that public policy is simply the collective actions a nation takes to solve real problems, so the public must be at the center of every step. Built as an independent but closely linked unit within UB, the institute protects its academic freedom to stay credible and objective. Dr. Vernon says this independence is key to offering honest analysis and trusted guidance, reinforcing UB’s push to become a national leader in meaningful, research‑driven development.

 

Dr. Dylan Vernon, Executive Director, BELPRI-UB

“It’s been an intense year, very productive year, from our point of view, in starting to pursue our vision for a Belize in which more of our public policies are informed by objective analysis of evidence. That, in a sense, is our essence. And to break that down a little bit, just as studying the national budget is important, so is knowing and influencing, and accessing and engaging in all public policies that impact our lives. And, in a nutshell, that is what BELPRI wants to contribute to, for what is a public policy if it is not the official actions that we take as society, as a country, collectively, to address an issue or problem affecting the public, affecting people, the nation. For sure then, the public has to be central to all aspects of public policy and too often, as we know, that is not the case. And this is where BELPRI, with the support of UB, is working to make a difference. We are integrating in the university as an independent but closely affiliated unit. And that word, independence, is important because while we are of UB, the kind of work we do requires us to also have our own academic freedom and independence within the university if we are going to have credibility and objectivity.”

 

UB’s Policy Tracker Gets Minister Martinez’s Nod

 

UB is moving fast on policy. Minister Osmond Martinez hails its evidence‑based tracker and wants AI to check progress in real time and refresh it every two weeks, limiting human bias and keeping decisions clear, consistent, and accountable.

 

Dr. Osmond Martinez, Minister of State, Economic Transformation

“When I see the University of Belize taking these initiatives, I feel so proud because the University of Belize is the national institution of Belize, it’s the national university. And that, by itself, should also mean that you are leading in different areas, and being able to look at this policy tracker which will be guided by evidence-based policy development. It’s really helpful because Belize needs it. Now, I was very curious, and I am very interested to learn more about it,  and I don’t know what is the direction that it will be going, you know, how it is headed and how it will work. But one of the points that I am very interested in is how can we integrate AI into the policy, because I was asking Ambassador Dylan, and I said, how will you monitor the progress of policies?” And he was saying, well you know, we will be looking at this every two weeks we’ll be making some adjustments and updating it. What we want to leave out from any policy is human interpretation, and I will tell you why, because humans interpret things differently. And so, the outcome will be different.”

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

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