The Caribbean: Development that demands resilience

In the global imagination, the Caribbean islands are synonymous with white sand, turquoise waters, natural beauty with lush vegetation, volcanoes and waterfalls, vibrant culture and history. They also boast luxury hotels, exotic cuisine, music, and fun.

This paradisiacal vision is largely true, but these islands and other small countries with Caribbean coasts often face enormous challenges in advancing their development and bringing well-being to their inhabitants.

There are many differences among them, starting with the population size. Some countries have between 50,000 and 70,000 inhabitants. Others, such as Suriname, Belize, and Guyana (on the mainland), and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, and Saint Lucia, have between 100,000 and 800,000 inhabitants.

Trinidad and Tobago has a population of 1.5 million, and Jamaica, 3 million, while Haiti and the Dominican Republic together have nearly 24 million people.

In the region's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the first country reaches almost $128 billion, but the tenth is just above $1.1 billion. For most of these territories, tourism is key: it generates significant income and employment, but other activities also occur there, generating business opportunities and favorable environments for investors.

However, the islands, in particular, frequently face critical situations that threaten their progress. First, due to hurricanes, storms, and threats of climate change. And second, due to international crises that often affect economies highly dependent on external resources.

“There are many things to understand, because statistics, for example, show the Bahamas as a high-income country, but that's not true. That doesn't explain the level of development needs and financing needed to build more resilient infrastructure and diversify and make the economy more robust,” explains Stacy Richards-Kennedy, regional manager for the Caribbean at CAF, the development bank of Latin America and the Caribbean.

Each territory has its own identity, but they all face common realities in which the words risk, crisis, and vulnerability frequently appear. Every international shock directly impacts the economy and internal development of these countries; every hurricane or sea level rise threatens infrastructure and affects agriculture in the region, not to mention the effects on biodiversity.

Caribbean countries contribute no more than 1% of the greenhouse gases that impact global warming, but they are 100% victims of the risks of climate change. Hurricanes like Irma, Maria, and Dorian devastated many islands and island economies, demonstrating that the climate crisis is a reality.

Countries like Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, and Suriname have energy-based economies dependent on oil or natural gas exports. They frequently face fluctuations in international oil prices due to geopolitical or economic tensions that impact energy markets.

CAF's shareholders include the Bahamas, Barbados, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Tobago, Dominica, Grenada, and Antigua and Barbuda, and it has advanced key research and projects in the field, in areas such as water security, the blue economy, climate resilience, biodiversity protection and urban development, sustainable technologies, and governance.

One notable initiative focuses on the sustainable use of sargassum, a seaweed that, when it accumulates on beaches, has a significant environmental and economic impact.

The water security study, for example, showed that several countries suffer significant water shortages, while others face absolute scarcity. Many are losing almost half of their available water due to outdated and inefficient infrastructure, and sewage treatment coverage averages just 11%. Many lack adequate treatment for wastewater discharged into the sea.

Thus, the challenges facing the Caribbean are multiple and require the intervention of diverse actors on many critical fronts.

Colombia, Host of Caribbean Summit

More than 25 countries of the Greater Caribbean met in Colombia at the end of May for the 10th Summit of Heads of State of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) and the Third Colombia-CARICOM Ministerial Summit on Sustainable Development and Climate Change.

At the end of the ACS meeting, country delegates issued the Montería Declaration, in which they reaffirmed their commitment to cooperation as an essential tool for achieving sustainable development in the Greater Caribbean, fulfilling the 2030 Agenda, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The document highlighted the importance of multi-stakeholder and multi-level strategic alliances to achieve efficient and mutually beneficial cooperation for sustainable development for all countries.

At the Third CARICOM Summit, Colombia, currently an observer country, requested membership in this organization of Caribbean countries.

"Year after year, there is a decline in development due to the impact of natural disasters, and this increases the pressure on governments in terms of the availability of resources in their GDP to improve their country's development," warns Richards-Kennedy.