 Welcome to NTN Nightly, I am General Norvell, this edition's top stories. Fighting crime remains a top priority for the Government of St. Lucia. The Department of Gender Relations makes strides in putting an end to gender-based violence. And Ease receives smart devices from the Ministry of Education. Fighting crime remains a top priority for the Government of St. Lucia. The House Prime Minister, the Honourable Alan Chastney, who indicated that the Government continues to tackle the issue on several fronts. The Prime Minister highlighted that the judicial system has been bolstered with increased human resource capacity, among other things. We first have the police force, which needed to be strengthened, and we've been doing so. Better communication systems, CCTV cameras, new vehicles, better training, and recently promotions for those officers, and physically improving their offices as well as their own personal facilities. We're also going to be commencing the construction of the new police headquarters very soon. We've also strengthened our forensic lab because without evidence makes convictions impossible. So the forensic lab not only has new equipment and is fully operational, but will also be doing all of the forensic investigation on the crime scenes. We've now added a DNA testing lab to help strengthen the forensic lab. The DPP's office, when we came in there was no DPP and there was three or four people in that office. Now we have over nine people and several lawyers and we can see the improved efficiency in prosecution. The court system in this new police headquarters will include six new courts, three magistrate, three criminal. But even recently, because of COVID, our criminal court has not been able to be used because of the need for protocols, the application of protocols, particularly as it pertains to our jury. The prime minister noted that while challenges exist, the government of St. Lucia is not deterred and continues to put its shoulder to the wheel. He explained that strides have also been made in fighting crime on the social front. Furthermore, we must recognize that particularly for domestic abuse and child abuse, the signs are there from early. And clearly we have failed as a society in being able to put the mechanisms in for persons to be able to report this and also for the sensitivity of information and how we deal with the victims themselves. And so we have been strengthening our social systems to be able to address that. And we have to do a better job of sharing information between nurses, teachers, sports officers and social workers as well as better educating the public on identifying abuse cases and how to be able to report it. Prime Minister Hon. Shasne said that measures should not be reactionary but instead proactive. He added that reporting mechanisms are being put in place. We must be outraged at the loss of any life through domestic abuse. We have been hired additional social workers. We are decentralizing government to make sure that the level of communication between education, health care and social workers is happening on a more regular basis and that they can share information and make sure that if in fact these things are happening that the government's workers can help address the situation long before it results in somebody being seriously harmed or even killed. Prime Minister St. Lucia Hon. Shasne. According to the United Nations, since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, emerging data and reports from frontliners have confirmed that all types of violence against women and girls, particularly domestic violence, has intensified. This shadow pandemic, the organization noted, is growing amidst the COVID-19 crisis. St. Lucia just over the past weekend recorded two separate incidents of gender-based violence. Minister for Education, Innovation, Gender Relations and Sustainable Development Hon. Dr. Gil Rigabet speaking on the issue called for collective effort to put an end to gender-based violence. She added that the ministry has been doing its part to fight the looming pandemic. Through the Department of Gender Relations and other agencies, the government has made strides in ensuring that there are support mechanisms for victims of rape and other forms of gender-based violence including the Hotline, the 202 Hotline. We are an agency that works in collaboration with other agencies, other system ministries to eliminate gender-based violence. We in collaboration with other stakeholders have all intensified efforts at strengthening St. Lucia's response to gender-based violence through, for example, the provision of the essential services program for women and girls subject to violence, which is evolving very nicely thanks to multiple stakeholder involvement and participation. The ministry Hon. Dr. Rigabet explained has also done extensive work over the past two years through technical assistance from sisters for change through agencies, including the Department of External Affairs and the Ministry of Equity, Social Justice, Local Government and Empowerment and the Quality Justice Alliance Initiative to strengthen legislation for domestic violence. The process towards the enactment of a very progressive piece of legislation that more broadly defines domestic violence and provides redress for a wider range of victims is currently in an advanced stage of review. A comprehensive public education campaign will follow immediately after the passage of this bill. We are in the process of refining the strategy to engender base violence within the context of new gender equality policy and strategy for St. Lucia. The division along with other stakeholders through technical support from UN agencies, United Nations agencies such as UN Women and UNSPA have developed a draft gender-based violence referral pathway for St. Lucia. It is expected that through this mechanism we can assist other agencies such as NGOs and CSOs who learn support to victims of gender-based violence and to do so more effectively and efficiently. Honourable Dr. Rigabet also indicated due to the assistance of the Canadian Government, the Government of St. Lucia will be refurbishing the Women's Support Centre. Upon completion, the centre will be able to better meet the needs of victims as an increased capacity is expected, along with the ability to provide psychosocial support to eligible women subject to intimate partner violence and their minor children to name a few. This is NTN Nightly. When we come back, ease receives smart devices from the Ministry of Education. Stay with us. An accident again? Eh, eh, eh, eh. Don't be afraid. We'll go to the top and then we'll go down. The broken machines will bless you. And don't be afraid. Be careful not to get hurt. Stray animals are endangering human lives and property. Livestock owners, please ensure animals do not stray on roads, highways, and public places. Remember sections of the Animals Act 2005 states, Stray animals will be seized and put in a pound by authorised persons. Owners will be liable to a fine of $5,000 or two years' imprisonment or both. Save innocent animals. Save human lives and property. A message from the Department of Agriculture. Welcome back. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Pfizer Albert Bola has indicated that the pharmaceutical company remains committed to ensuring equitable and affordable access to COVID-19 vaccines the world over. He spoke during a recent World Health Organization press brief. We fully support and we are in alignment with the guiding principles of the COVAX facility. And we believe that GAVIS coordination of the COVAX Advanced Market Commitment that supports the participation of 92 lower, middle and low-income economies is an important tool that will help to ensure that developing countries have the same access to vaccines as the rest of the world. And we will provide the vaccine to COVAX for these countries and not for profit-based. In this context, I'm very pleased to serve at the Pfizer and BioNTech have reached an advanced purchase agreement with the COVAX facility for up to 14 million initial doses of our COVID-19 vaccine. We expect the first doses will be delivered in the first quarter of this year. Once we finalize agreements with UNICEF and PAHO who are coordinating procurement to support the delivery of these vaccines. Chief Executive Officer of GAVIS, the Vaccine Alliance, Dr. Seth Berkeley, explained that the COVAX facility has been able to secure more vaccine doses than initially predicted. This allows for the protection of about 27% of the population of low and lower-middle-income countries. So today, just over six weeks since the beginning of the first non-clinical trial vaccine doses being used against the COVID-19 pandemic, we face the prospect of very soon being able to deliver, as you heard from Dr. Tedros, nearly 150 million doses in the first quarter of the year via a global equitable access initiative. This has been made possible by a collective effort by the international community that has helped COVAX raise over six billion U.S. dollars and secure access to over two billion doses. Of course, we can do more and we need to do more. By our calculation, with the right level of funding in place, COVAX could procure 2.3 billion doses of vaccines in 2021. This would equate to close to 1.8 billion doses for the 92 lower-income countries in the COVAX Advanced Market Commitment, or AMC, as we call it. The United Nations Children's Fund UNICEF is also a critical stakeholder in the global fight against COVID-19. UNICEF has been at the front lines in countries across the world, providing PPEs, education sector support, and psychosocial programs. Henrietta Ford is the Executive Director. UNICEF is currently assessing a series of bids in the COVID-19 vaccine tender that we launched in November. We are negotiating long-term supply agreements with a number of manufacturers, agreements that will pave the way for the world's poorest countries to have access to doses of quality-assured vaccines. As part of this effort, I am pleased to announce that UNICEF has awarded Pfizer a contract following the tender, and we are now in discussions to finalize the supply agreement. Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund UNICEF, Henrietta Ford. While COVID-19 continues to disrupt physical classroom engagement in the education sector, the Ministry of Education is continuing efforts to enable online learning through the distribution of smart devices. The recipients of the latest laptop donation are members of the Empress Eve Agro Security Central's Ease Arastopherian Women's Farming Organization. Minister for Education, Innovation, Generations, and Sustainable Development, Honorable Dr. Gilbert, highlighted the importance of supporting women, especially during a pandemic. One of the things that COVID-19 has unearthed is the vulnerability, the heightened vulnerability of women and girls, especially during a pandemic. In fact, many of them are engaged in the informal sector, many are young entrepreneurs, and this particular group of ladies from Ease have among them fisherfolk and farmers. They are also single mothers. Honorable Dr. Gilbert said the donation to Ease is a perfect intersection of the work done under her portfolio. When we speak of sustainable development, we also speak of sustainable livelihoods. And that is why, thanks to the engender project, through the kindness and benevolence of our partners such as you and women and our friends in Canada, we were able to mobilize some resources to intervene in the lives of our women who found themselves further marginalized because they had lost their jobs because of COVID or had encountered additional economic hardship. The leader of Ease, Danny James, expressed gratitude for the minister's continued support. I would like to first thank the minister for receiving us, for listening to us, for assisting us, because from inception, when I first put the group together after COVID, we went to the minister and she was very, very instrumental in receiving us, wanting to assist us. And coming in today, she has showed us she is on board with us and we do appreciate and we give thanks for the donation which we know will help and benefit our children in doing online schooling, online learning in these COVID times now. Once again, Madam Minister, we want to thank you. Coming from the group, we want to thank you immensely. The engender project, you and women and Canadian allies to the Government of St. Lucia all partnered on the initiative. That brings us to the end of NTN Nightly. Join us next time at 7pm with a repeat at 7am. You can also catch up with us anytime on the St. Lucia Government Facebook page or YouTube channel. I am Channel Novel.