$1.2bn debt swap by January 1 to fund healthcare, fight childhood obesity

Barbados is set to launch a $1.2bn debt-for-social swap by January 1, unlocking more than $320m in savings to fund healthcare programmes and tackle childhood obesity, Finance Minister Ryan Straughn has told Barbados TODAY exclusively.

The new debt-for-social swap is also designed to channel savings from restructured sovereign debt into other key social programmes, such as education and heritage. 

Straughn said he would go to Parliament next month to formalise the financial arrangement, which will unlock more than $320m in debt savings to fund healthcare programmes and tackle a childhood obesity crisis in which 42 per cent of children are overweight or obese.

Last week, the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean (CAF) approved the debt swap.

Other partner financial institutions — the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the World Bank and the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) — are to approve their part within the next two weeks, he disclosed.

“CIBC and Scotia Bank are the lead arrangers; and by December 15 that transaction should be executed so that we could get the process rolling from as early as January 1 with respect to implementation of the programme.  

“We are talking about a $1.2bn in a debt buy-back to focus on the debt-for-health initiative. Forty-two per cent of our children are overweight or obese, which is a startling figure. We have to turn that around; and so, a lot of emphasis will be placed on how to turn that around, so that we don’t further increase the cost of diabetes and hypertension and those other things that create issues for how the economy would work.”

“It’s a lot of money,” Straughn noted, “but we are going to unlock $320m in savings from that swap to be able to dedicate to addressing the NCD epidemic.”

The finance minister lamented that Barbados had spent more than $6.1bn on healthcare over the past 15 years. He said the debt swap forms part of the government’s efforts to re-engineer its financing.

He has pointed to projections that nearly half the population could be over the age of 65 by 2050 and warned that the country’s obesity crisis would place increasing pressure on future generations if left unchecked.

He has also compared the issue to the country’s ongoing fight against crime and violence, arguing that both require urgent national attention.

“In the same way we are currently dealing with the issues related to crime and violence in the country, this is a slow-walking epidemic, pandemic, call it whatever you like, that is just as important to address in our daily lives in the same way that we have to address the deviance and the criminality that is pervasive in our society.”

Straughn said young people must be empowered to become advocates for healthier lifestyles.

“We will continue to invest in providing the best possible educational opportunities, but we also must invest to ensure that we provide the best health outcomes because the two things must coexist if the future of Barbados is to be assured.”

He also suggested that children challenge unhealthy habits at home by discussing nutrition with their parents and guardians.

“The Government of Barbados has spent over $6.1bn in healthcare; that’s a lot of money to be spending on health. And I want to emphasise that Barbados’s public and social policy has always been predicated on investing in education…but equally ensuring that access to healthcare does not in any way cause a family to be bankrupt. 

“Almost 50 per cent…of the population will be over 65 [by 2050], so no pressure, young people, but the reality is that we are already facing a significant issue with non-communicable diseases, and if we have almost one in two children today who will face similar circumstances for a much longer part of their life, then it really is on us as a society to ensure that we genuinely arrest this problem.”

(EJ)