UWI, IDB sign MOU for institutional strengthening

As the Caribbean faces some of its most serious social, economic and environmental challenges ever, the University of the West Indies (UWI) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) are consolidating their relationship to help the region make the necessary transformations to better handle these issues.

This evening, as the two institutions renewed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between them, UWI Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sir Hilary Beckles said the agreement will result in the institutional strengthening of the university to enable it to better serve the region on the matters engaging it.

“So we will be developing the infrastructure to carry out greater research on climate change, gender-related issues, crime and violence, non-communicable diseases and information and communications technology, in the wake of the pandemic.

“It will open the door for new opportunities for the IDB to find a way to invest in UWI, which will be a tremendous contribution to the development of a top tier of talent for the region and the world,” Sir Hilary said.

Regarding climate change, he added that The UWI is the first university in the world to launch a Global Institute for Climate Smart Studies, and he expected that the support from the IDB would help that centre become a truly global institution.

“Ultimately, we aim to globalize our research component and generate resources that will build up educational tourism in the Caribbean where people from all over the world can come to this institution,” he said.

While the dollar amount of the MOU was not disclosed, Sir Hilary said its impact on the Caribbean in the years ahead could not be measured in monetary terms alone.

Meanwhile, President of the IDB, Mauricio Claver-Carone, noted that there were five areas of recovery which the Caribbean needed to address at the present time, and spoke specifically to the area of digitalization.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us the importance of this field because, within the Caribbean and Latin America, some 60 million children did not have access to education because of a lack of connectivity.

“Another issue we have noticed as well is that 70 per cent of graduates from the region find opportunities outside of the Caribbean, but imagine how far ahead the Caribbean would be if that talent remained here to build out these countries,” Claver-Carone said.