Activist says development glass ‘half empty’ in region

by Nelson A. King in New York 10.AUG.07

While the main focus on the recently-concluded Conference on the Caribbean in Washington was on the summit between US President George W. Bush and Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders, Civil Society organizations also played their part in other forums.{{more}}

In the Civil Society address, at the Caribbean Diaspora Forum, one of the region’s leading civil society activists lamented the “half empty development glass.”

Vincentian Nelcia Robinson-Hazel, coordinator of the Trinidad-based Caribbean Association for Feminist Research and Action (CAFRA) told delegates that development gains in the region are overshadowed by a number of factors, including crime and violence.

She said these, like the proverbial “bad apple in the barrel,” have the potential to destroy the region in a manner similar to some of the hurricanes that visit the islands annually.

In addition, Robinson-Hazel said the negative impact of trade liberalization has created “the new poor, while crushing the marginalized,” citing the loss of the banana market and the requirement for Value Added Taxes.

“The persistent burden of poverty on the vulnerable sectors of the population adds to peoples’ bewilderment, surrounded, as they are, by affluence, which they cannot enjoy,” she said.

Robinson-Hazel, who is also chairperson of the Barbados-based Caribbean Policy Development Centre (CPDC), said poverty is becoming increasingly feminized, and that many communities are over-run by violence, inadequate attention to health care, HIV/AIDS awareness/prevention and care, and inadequate disaster management processes.

“It appears that growth has taken place, while many livelihoods have been gnawed at, and are crumbling,” she said.

“Failure to develop livelihoods results in unemployment and under-employment, with consequences such as outlined above, as well as drug abuse, migration and brain drain of skilled personnel,” she added.

Robinson-Hazel said “serious anomalies” are taking place as pressure mounts on livelihoods, urging “wise state and non-state actors” to take serious note.

“One only has to read the newspapers around the region, as the media tell the tale,” she said.

Alluding to a recent World Bank/UN report that stated that the region has been spending large sums of money to guard against the activities of criminals, Robinson-Hazel said balance must be restored through an agenda that will “develop local and national conditions to release the untapped resources for growth and livelihoods that rest in the people themselves.”

At the same time, she called for greater partnerships among governments, civil society organizations and beneficiaries, among others, slum dwellers and people living with HIV/AIDS.

“Our own challenge is to raise adequate financial resources for our work, as donors are looking at our “half-full” development glass and withdrawing from the region,” Robinson-Hazel said.

“Much hope lies with our governments and with the Caribbean-US Diaspora to work with us towards a ‘full development glass,’ she said.