The Inter-American Development Bank’s Country Office in Trinidad and Tobago has now completed a series of three sessions that provided opportunities to key staff of executing units (on average 80 persons per session) with responsibility for IDB-financed projects to share experiences and knowledge with each other, other public sector stakeholders and with the IDB’s … [Read more...] about Building Leadership for Successful Project Execution
Climate finance and Climate Investment Funds
What do Bob Marley and climate change have in common? Never would I have thought there might be a connection between Bob Marley and climate change. “It’s all about ‘One Love,’” repeated the Honorable Minister Ian Hayles of Water, Land, Environment and Climate Change, when he opened the Climate Investment Fund (CIF) Partnership Forum in Montego Bay, Jamaica. Obviously the … [Read more...] about Climate finance and Climate Investment Funds
The Fear Factor a Back-Of-The-Envelope Calculation on the Economic Risk of an Ebola Scare in The Caribbean
This brief presents simulations of an Ebola scare in the Caribbean, including three highly tourism-dependent economies, The Bahamas, Barbados, and Jamaica. On the basis of the experience of Mexico in 2009 with swine flu, we simulate a short but sharp drop in tourist arrivals resulting from tourists' worries about Ebola. The Caribbean is special in that tourism contributes … [Read more...] about The Fear Factor a Back-Of-The-Envelope Calculation on the Economic Risk of an Ebola Scare in The Caribbean
What do you mean by “Caribbean” anyway?
Ironically, while thoroughly entertaining myself elbow-deep in Guyanese pepper-pot, I received a work request over the weekend to address the issue of Caribbean identity. I also became aware of a heated on-going debate on our blog as to how we should define and boundary the concept of “the Caribbean” – past colonial affiliations; imaginary lines in the deep blue sea; economic … [Read more...] about What do you mean by “Caribbean” anyway?
Is there something wrong with the Caribbean?
This blog is the second in our series of five blogs on economic stagnation in the Caribbean. Our first blog “Smallness hurts, but does it constrain growth?” showed that, while smallness creates several economic problems, it does not constrain growth. With that as a starting point, in this post we illustrate two important ways in which the Caribbean stands … [Read more...] about Is there something wrong with the Caribbean?