Strengthening cooperation between telecommunications operators and national disaster offices in Caribbean countries

In Caribbean countries, modern telecommunications infrastructure is vulnerable to an array of natural disasters, as exemplified by the impacts of Tropical Storm Erika in Dominica, Hurricane Joaquin in the Bahamas, and Hurricane Earl in Belize. At the same time, telecommunications service —especially mobile telephony and data services— can provide invaluable support to disaster management efforts by facilitating communication, coordination, and intelligence collection during emergency situations. Thus, as a matter of public safety, ensuring the resilience of telecommunications infrastructure in…

The Hummingbird Vol.4 No.5

Prospects for blockchain-based settlement frameworks as a resolution to the threat of de-risking to Caribbean financial systems

Caribbean countries have been seriously impacted by the trend toward “de-risking” in the global financial system, and this is damaging to their economic security and the ability of Caribbean businesses to innovate. De-risking is the name given to the tendency of banking institutions to turn away from working relationships and lines of business for which the cost of regulatory compliance—and the risk of non-compliance— is deemed to be too high in comparison to the returns. This is a phenomenon that is affecting developing economies around the world, but the small and vulnerable economies of the…

The Hummingbird Vol.4 No.2

The Hummingbird Vol.4 No.1

Information and communications technology for people with disabilities

The Hummingbird Vol.3 No.7

Expert survey on priorities for the information society in the Caribbean

An on-line survey of experts was conducted to solicit their views on policy priorities in the area of information and communication technologies (ICT) in the Caribbean. The experts considered the goal to “promote teacher training in the use of ICTs in the classroom” to be the highest priority, followed by goals to “reduce the cost of broadband services” and “promote the use of ICT in emergency and disaster prevention, preparedness and response.” Goals in the areas of cybercrime, e-commerce, egovernment, universal service funds, consumer protection, and on-line privacy rounded out the top 10. S…

The Hummingbird Vol. 3 No. 4

The Hummingbird Vol. 3 No. 3

Regional approaches to e-government initiatives in the Caribbean

This paper examines the potential benefits and challenges of regionally managed e-government development initiatives. It examines the current state of e-government in four Caribbean countries – Barbados, Jamaica, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago – in order to establish a broader understanding of the challenges that face e-government initiatives in the region. It also reviews a number of e-government initiatives that have been undertaken through projects managed at a regional level. Based on this analysis, it presents a set of best practices that are recommended to agen…

Opportunities and risks associated with the advent of digital currency in the Caribbean

This report examines the usage of digital currency technology in the Caribbean subregion with a view to drawing attention to the opportunities and risks associated with this new phenomenon. It discusses the broader context of an emerging activity at the global level and considers how this technology could address subregional deficiencies in the electronic payment infrastructure. The report also discusses mobile money solutions, and the relationship of that technology to digital currency.…

The Hummingbird Vol.2 No.11

A new era in Caribbean telecommunications

The Hummingbird Vol.2 No.9

The Hummingbird Vol.2 No.8

Working paper on the eLAC 2018 Digital Agenda in consideration of Caribbean priorities for technology-supported development

eLAC 2018 will coordinate the implementation of programmes to support the use of information and communications technologies (ICTs) in achieving social and economic development goals for Latin America in the Caribbean during the 2015-2018 timeframe. The conceptual framework for this programme of work is described by the eLAC 2018 Digital Agenda, which is anticipated to be ratified by the fifth Ministerial Conference on the Information Society in Latin America and the Caribbean, to be held in August 2015 in Mexico City. There is a need for broader input from Caribbean countries to the eLAC 2018…

Information and communication technology for disaster risk management in the Caribbean: subregional solutions to the challenge of limited human resource capacity

This document was adapted from a paper originally presented to the 8th Annual Caribbean Conference of Comprehensive Disaster Management, held in Montego Bay, Jamaica in December, 2013. It summarizes several activities that ECLAC has undertaken to assess the current state of information and communications technology (ICT) in the field of disaster risk management (DRM) as practiced in the Caribbean. These activities included an in-depth study that encompassed a survey of disaster management organizations in the region, an Expert Group Meeting attended by the heads of several national disaster of…

The Hummingbird Vol.2 No.1

Development strategies for the information and communications technology sector in the Caribbean: A global perspective

This occasional paper examines the experiences of three leading global centres of the ICT industry – India, Silicon Valley, and Estonia – to reflect on how the lessons of these models can be applied to the context of countries in the Caribbean region.Several sectors of the technology industry are considered in relation to the suitability for their establishment in the Caribbean. Animation is an area that is showing encouraging signs of development in several countries, and which offers some promise to provide a significant source of employment in the region. However, the global market for anim…