Caribbean Policy Research Institute (CAPRI) will outline the findings of its newest policy report, Home Advantage: Reforming Jamaica’s Adoption System, today, Wednesday, January 28, at 6:00 pm (GMT-5) during a public livestream on CAPRI’s YouTube channel.

By teasing the public with some of the report’s content, CAPRI highlighted an inefficiency in the local adoption system.

“Despite more than 150 approved adoptive parents waiting, only 10–20 wards of the state are adopted into non-relative families each year in Jamaica,” it said in a release.

With funding from the European Union, the Report examines why, despite clear demand for adoption, outcomes remain limited. Home Advantage challenges the assumption that Jamaica’s low adoption rate is driven by cultural resistance or a lack of willing adoptive parents. Instead, it points to outdated legal frameworks, fragmented institutional responsibility, and chronic capacity gaps that delay permanent family placement for children in state care.

“Adoption in Jamaica is treated as a last resort rather than as a core child-protection tool,” explained Dr Diana Thorburn, director of research at CAPRI.

“In practice, it is pursued only after prolonged and often unrealistic reunification efforts, instead of being considered in parallel for children who cannot safely return home.”

Aleem Mahabir, a fellow at CAPRI, will present the report’s findings, after which Dr Thorburn will moderate a panel discussion that includes Diahann Gordon Harrison, Children’s Advocate of Jamaica and National Rapporteur on Trafficking in Persons, and Gavin Goffe, attorney-at-law at Myers, Fletcher & Gordon. Following the launch, the full report, Home Advantage: Reforming Jamaica’s Adoption System, will be available for download on capricaribbean.org