The Bahamas is extremely vulnerable to natural disasters and climate change. The country has been hit by 25 hurricanes over the past 25 years and between 1963 and 2019, the 14 most devastating hurricanes affected over 29,600 people. Due to climate change, the average strength and frequency of tropical cyclones will likely increase as water temperature in the North Atlantic and … [Read more...] about How satellites can help us understand the economic impacts of hurricanes
Laura Giles Álvarez
Laura Giles Álvarez is the Country Economist at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in Colombia, having previously worked as a Country Economist in Haiti, Barbados, and The Bahamas. Laura started her career at the IDB as a young professional in the Social Protection and Health Division and the Economics Team at the Caribbean Country Department. Before joining the IDB, Laura worked as a public financial management consultant, where she designed and executed projects on macro-fiscal policy, expenditure management, and the budget cycle in Kenya, Mozambique, Timor Leste, and Angola. Additionally, she served as an ODI Fellow in the fiscal team within the Macroeconomic Policy Department at the Ministry of Finance in Timor Leste. Laura holds a double master's degree in economic development from the University of Carlos III, Madrid, and Lund University.
Are women worse off after 2020?
A picture of the socioeconomic trends surrounding COVID-19 in the Caribbean with a gender lens Since recording the first cases of COVID-19 in March 2020, the pandemic has posed a heavy burden on health systems, the economy and the livelihoods of people in the region. The pandemic also has the potential of reinforcing and even worsening pre-existing inequalities within … [Read more...] about Are women worse off after 2020?
Understanding Financial Vulnerability and Promoting Resilience in Barbados during COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a negative impact on Barbadians and has highlighted important traits about financial vulnerability and resilience. The restrictions in movement across and within national borders in response to the public health crisis have struck a hard blow to economic activity in Barbados. Because Barbados’s economy is small and based on tourism, this has … [Read more...] about Understanding Financial Vulnerability and Promoting Resilience in Barbados during COVID-19
Could Distributed Ledger Technology improve Caribbean trade?
COVID-19 has brought the urgent need for regional integration to the forefront of the political discourse. This is particularly important in the Caribbean region, where countries depend on trade. However, between 2000 and 2015, the share of intraregional trade in the Caribbean fell from 13 percent to 10 percent of total trade. Costs, particularly those linked to non-trade … [Read more...] about Could Distributed Ledger Technology improve Caribbean trade?
When Facing a Black Swan, Let’s Work Together
COVID-19 in Barbados is proving to be a perfect example of what Nassim Nicholas Taleb termed a “black swan”. It is a rare event, with an extreme impact and which, in retrospect, could have been predicted. As discussed in our latest Caribbean Quarterly Report July 2020, the pandemic reached Barbados in March 2020 and has since been putting both lives and livelihoods at stake in … [Read more...] about When Facing a Black Swan, Let’s Work Together