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Making People Happy

April 20, 2016 by Diether W. Beuermann 2 Comments


Development is not about economic growth but rather about creating freedom, helping people flourish, and simply making them happy. This is not a new concept.

The West Indies Under-19 cricket team triumphed in the World Cup earlier in the year and the senior West Indies cricket teams had outstanding victories obtaining both male and female world championships. These wins were even more compelling because of the joy its residents felt, including a sense of unity as Caribbean people.

Lately, for a mix of tourism and commodity-dependent small countries, the region’s fortunes have been limited given overwhelming circumstances: brain drain, falling terms of trade, vulnerability to commodity prices, drugs and crime, and rapid globalization. Competitiveness and better prospects for Caribbean people will be key.

As the largest multilateral lender in the Caribbean, the IDB is seriously committed to supporting the region’s quest for development. The Bank’s lending programme, in six Caribbean countries, as a share of GDP is 10 times more than in larger economies. The Bank has provided more than US$3.8 billion in lending over the past five years and seeks to deepen this engagement over the next few years.

This April, the IDB celebrated its first annual meeting in the Caribbean in more than three decades. We used this moment to renew our commitment and to hone our strategy for tackling development in the region. After all, we strive to improve lives in the Caribbean by creating vibrant economies where people are safe, productive, and happy. Some considerations in this regard include:

  • An economy that is vibrant is one where the rules of the game are clear, capable people find work, and the vulnerable are protected.
  • Safety is important for economic growth and prosperity. Recent analyses in our latest quarterly bulletin suggest that a reduction in violent crime would boost growth. What happens in the home plays an important role in these outcomes. Evidence shows that by being more engaged with their children, parents can significantly reduce the likelihood of their children getting involved in destructive behaviour. The Bank’s victimization surveys enables us to understand factors that may protect or put individuals at risk of crime, identify vulnerable groups, estimate the magnitude of unreported crimes and gauge the effects of crime on people.  In addition, the Bank is partnering with several Caribbean countries to finance crime-reduction programs and social intervention including parenting support, antiviolence initiatives, and after-school programs. However, we can do more.
  • Productivity-driven growth is more sustainable. Linked to enhancing our productivity is the overall levels of unemployment and underemployment.  One-quarter of Caribbean youth are unemployed, more than three times the unemployment rate for Caribbean adults.  Unemployment at an early age reduces employment options and earnings later in life, leads to lower productivity levels, and may contribute to higher social unrest. Delivering better trained people, enhancing efficiency in the public service, using appropriate technologies and reducing skills mismatch can boost productivity. None of these areas is foreign to the work that the IDB is doing with it counterparts in the field.  Again, the Bank wishes to do more.
  • Development means happy people. There is room to make residents happier. One way of tackling this is by thinking together about how to promote equality of opportunity.

Our cricket champions kept the whole region engaged and united. The 15 individuals and the supporting cast of managers, coaches, and trainers thought, planned, prepared and, as a team, executed plans on the field with focus and passion. Their success resulted in making us all very happy. The parallel to development is here. It is hard work and it is created together. The IDB wants to find ways to stay engaged with the Caribbean as we think, plan and execute together. Just as in cricket, we are in the business of making people happy.

*Therese Turner-Jones is the General Manager of the Caribbean Country Department at the Inter-American Development Bank. View her TED-style talk at the IDB-IIC Annual Governors’ Meeting that was held in The Bahamas (April 2016) here.

Follow us on Twitter: @IDB_CarDevTrend


Filed Under: Economy & Investment, Social Systems Tagged With: development, happiness, Productivity-driven growth, West Indian Cricket, West Indies

Diether W. Beuermann

Diether W. Beuermann is a Lead Economist in the Caribbean Country Department of the Inter-American Development Bank. He has led research and data collection projects in various countries, including Barbados, Colombia, Guyana, Jamaica, Peru, Russia, Suriname, The Bahamas, Democratic Republic of Congo, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United States. His research has covered the effects of different information and communication technologies on agricultural profitability, child labor, academic performance, pre-natal care, and neo-natal health. He has also conducted research on the effectiveness of participatory budgeting, the short- and long-run effects of educational quality, the multidimensional nature of school causal effects, the determinants of school choice, the effectiveness of math-focused parenting programs, the role of remittances as a social insurance mechanism, the effects of early-life weather shocks on short- and long-term human capital accumulation, the effects of public health insurance on health outcomes and labor supply, the effects of behavioral-based entrepreneurship training on firm profitability, the effects of blue-collar crime on financial access and credit prices of affected firms, and whether and how conditional cash transfers may affect the effectiveness of other human capital development policies. He has published in several leading international peer-reviewed journals, including the Review of Economic Studies, American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, Journal of Human Resources, Journal of Health Economics, Journal of Development Economics, and World Development. He holds a B.A. in Business Management and a B.Sc. in Economics from the Universidad de Lima, a M.Sc. in Finance from the University of Durham, and a M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Maryland-College Park.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Valerie Mercer-Blackman says

    April 25, 2016 at 8:19 pm

    Congratulations on a great Post! If the Caribbean can translate the unity of the West Indian cricket team to regional coordination and decision-making in other spheres it can thrive.

    Reply
  2. Sylvia Charles says

    June 12, 2016 at 7:36 pm

    An interesting post that captures critical issues facing the Caribbean Region. We need to face the challenges and grasp the opportunities presented by globalization and technological developments that define the economic realities that confront our countries. We need to prepare our people and transform our institutions for creative engagement in a dynamic world.

    Reply

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Caribbean Dev Trends

We provide unique and timely insights on the Caribbean and its political, social, and economic development. At the IDB, we strive to improve lives in the Caribbean by creating vibrant and resilient economies where people are safe, productive and happy.

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