Region urged to focus on building resilience

One noted regional economist is not convinced that Barbados and other Caribbean states have done enough over the years to build resilience to natural hazards.

In fact, former president of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) Professor Compton Bourne said he believed too much emphasis continued to be placed on reacting to natural disasters instead of building more resilient structures.

He made the comments while taking part in the President’s Chat, the third session in the series of the CDB’s 51st annual meeting of Board of Governors, which took place on Tuesday, looking at leadership, institution resilience and organisational evolution.

Bourne argued that decades from now Caribbean nationals should be able to look back and see that economic growth has been continually increasing and measures were put in place to safeguard against natural disasters and mitigate against external shocks.

“We know for the last 30 years we have had slow growth, unsteady growth, and sometimes prolonged economic decline. So one would hope that when we look back 30 years from now that would not be the scenario,” said Bourne.

“I also agree on the question of resilience. I think there are two important dimensions to this in terms of the shocks that we experience. The region’s economies experience external economic shocks and experience shocks coming from hazards. In a way, we cannot do much about the external economic shocks in terms of preventing them, but we can build our economic structures in such a way that we can moderate the impact of those shocks,” he said.

“For instance, ensuring that budgetary resources contain provisions for ameliorating the harmful effects on the less advantaged members of our societies with respect to the natural hazard shocks – I don’t think the region has done a very good job. We are still too heavily focused on relief and recovery and not sufficiently focused on building structures which minimize our vulnerability to the shocks,” he argued.

Pointing to the need for better sea defences, building codes and land settlements, Bourne added, “We have really not significantly addressed those things, and I hope that 30 years from now one would not be making the same kinds of statements and going around the world seeking funds for disaster relief and recovery.”

He also believed that 30 years from now the region should have a more diverse and vibrant private sector, something the CDB could easily help to bring about.

His wish is also for the CARICOM Secretariat and the CDB to work as an intermediary for member states with international agencies.

President of the CDB Dr Hyginus Gene Leon also believes the region has not grown as much as it should have over the years. He said while vulnerabilities were to be partially blamed, there were also a lot of structural deficits within regional economies.

“Part of it is, we have structural deficiencies that we have not been able to overcome [and] part of it is that we are not necessarily as productive as competitors out there are. So, I think looking forward can we sit back and say ‘the growth that we have experienced is sufficient, is adequate, is what we would want the legacy for our grandchildren to have and own?’.

“I think the answer for me is clearly no. And if that answer is no, then the question really is where would we like to see us ending?” suggested Leon.

He pointed to four main areas of focus including striving for resilient economies

“The second is I think, we want to have some sense of sustainable livelihoods where our people are not struggling in excess poverty. That would have to be a marker of success. I think we would equally want to be at a point where we can drive as an external force and there, I think, we can be innovators so that we can even aspire to be exporters of capital, not the traditional importers of capital.

“Fourth, what I would want at the end of the time is, could we really say that we have breached the digital divide. I am talking about a region of complete connectivity,” he said.

“There is ample room to say we need to pivot and what may be some of the desirable things we need to pivot to and then there will be the bigger question of how,” he added.

(MM)