The Hummingbird Vol. 7 No. 9

The Hummingbird Vol.7 No.8

Policy Brief: Planning for resilience: an integrated approach to tackle climate change in the Caribbean

The Caribbean subregion is exceptionally vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and extreme weather events. Vulnerability is a key multidimensional concept at the heart of resilience building, relating to each country’s multiple spatial and socioeconomic risks and conditions. In fact, due to its geographical location and concentration of population and activities in low-lying coastal areas, the Caribbean is the second most hazard-prone region in the world...Moreover, impacts of extreme weather events on Caribbean small economies are of national proportions. For example, in the hurricane s…

The Hummingbird Vol.7 No.7

Preliminary overview of the economies of the Caribbean 2019–2020

This overview examines the economic performance of economies of the Caribbean in 2019 and comprises four chapters. The first chapter provides a comparative analysis across Caribbean economies of the main macroeconomic variables, namely GDP growth, monetary indicators, as well as fiscal and external accounts. The second chapter looks at areas of focus in the Caribbean. The third chapter concludes, while the annex includes individual country briefs that give an overview of the economic situation for the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname and a subregional assessment of the coun…

The Hummingbird Vol.7 No.6

Advancing the Decade of Action for Sustainable Development in the Caribbean

The Hummingbird Vol.7 No.5

The Hummingbird Vol.7 No.4

The Hummingbird Vol.7 No.3

Caribbean synthesis report on the implementation of the Lisbon Declaration on Youth Policies and Programmes

The Subregional review of youth policies and strategies in the Caribbean offers an overview of national policies on youth in 29 Caribbean states and territories that are members or associate members of ECLAC. The report aims at providing a comprehensive review of the state of youth policies and programmes in the Caribbean, its current operational status, and the involvement of youth in guiding future implementation, including enhancing the understanding of the complex and multifaceted challenges facing youth empowerment, based on a set of international and subregional standards for youth polic…

The Hummingbird Vol.7 No.2

Proposal for a revitalized Caribbean Development and Cooperation Committee - Regional Coordinating Mechanism for Sustainable Development (CDCC-RCM): Repositioning CDCC-RCM as the mechanism for sustainable development in Caribbean small island developin...

The Small Island Developing States (SIDS) agenda for sustainable development has as its foundation the Barbados Programme of Action (BPoA 1994), the Mauritius Strategy for Further Implementation of the BPoA (MSI 2005) and more recently the SIDS Accelerated Modalities of Action (SAMOA Pathway 2014). These agreements representing 25 years of continual focus are the SIDS sustainable development blue prints. With the objectives of positioning and maintaining a strategic SIDS focus across sustainable development agendas, this paper re-examines the Regional Coordinating Mechanism of the Caribbean De…

Promoting debt sustainability to facilitate financing sustainable development in selected Caribbean countries: A scenario analysis of the ECLAC debt for climate adaptation swap initiative

In light of the high debt burden impacting Caribbean economies ECLAC has been pursuing an initiative designed to reduce the debt burden and advance sustainable development. The strategy has evolved over time and there is now agreement on an approach designed to bring financial resources to the Caribbean for resilience building while still emphasizing the importance of debt reduction. To address resilience and development financing, ECLAC proposes the establishment of a Caribbean Resilience Facility to be housed at a reputable financial institution. Such a facility would be capitalised by donor…

The enhancement of resilience to disasters and climate change in the Caribbean through the modernization of the energy sector

The Caribbean region is prone to disasters due to its geographic location. The exposures and resulting impacts of these disasters are aggravated by persistent social, economic and environmental vulnerabilities. Compounded with the region’s current dependence on imported fossil fuels and financial constraints, this study seeks to stimulate discussions around the complementarity of energy with every societal sector as well as its links with disaster risk management, and promote government-wide management that integrates energy policies, disaster management and climate change impacts.…

A preliminary review of policy responses to enhance SME access to trade financing in the Caribbean

The economies of the Caribbean face several challenges, such as a lack of economies of scale in production of goods and services exacerbated by small populations, narrow internal markets and scarce capital, which limit the economic gains from self-sufficiency. For this reason, more emphasis should be placed on building export capacity and facilitating trade. If we examine the characteristics of firms in the subregion, the majority can be categorized as small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Moreover, only about 13 per cent of these SMEs export. This suggests that on average the subregion i…

A review of Caribbean national statistical legislation in relation to the United Nations Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics

This study presents an assessment of national statistical legal frameworks across the Caribbean. It aims to ascertain the extent to which the UNFPOS are incorporated in the statistical laws of Member and Associate Member Countries of the Caribbean Development and Cooperation Committee (CDCC). Such an assessment provides the basis for making recommendations to the respective countries on policy actions needed to ensure the full incorporation of these principles in their statistics legislation thereby laying a solid foundation for the effective functioning of their NSS. Furthermore, an up-to-dat…

Industrial upgrading and diversification to address competitiveness challenges in the Caribbean: The case of tourism

This study analyses the efforts that The Bahamas, Belize and Saint Kitts and Nevis are making to upgrade and diversify their tourism sectors to increase its contribution to inclusive growth. Generally, the study finds that the countries have been making efforts to upgrade and diversify the sector, but this has been affected by resource and institutional constraints. The study proposes key recommendations for strengthening upgrading and diversification.…

Synthesis of the Caribbean subregion midterm review report of the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) Accelerated Modalities of Action (SAMOA) Pathway

The Small Island Developing States (SIDS) Accelerated Modalities of Action Pathway (hereafter referred to as the SAMOA Pathway) was adopted in 2014 at the United Nations Third International Conference on SIDS. The SAMOA Pathway builds on the 1994 Barbados Programme of Action for SIDS (BPOA) and the 2005 Mauritius Strategy of Implementation (MSI) for the Further Implementation of the BPOA. This document is a synthesis on the Caribbean Region- SAMOA Pathway Midterm Review Report prepared by ECLAC and in support of United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) Resolution 72/217.…

The Hummingbird Vol.7 No.1