The aid-related response to the travails of Caribbean countries by multilateral financial institutions (MFI) in the wake of the outbreak of COVID-19 and its attendant consequences up until now amounts to a failure in the region, a University of the West Indies lecturer told a public forum in Barbados last week.
Cave Hill economics lecturer, Dr Justin Robinson, last week asserted at a Public Workers’ Cooperative Credit Union Forum in Barbados that MFIs have ‘come up short’ in their response to the COVID-19-related travails of the region arising out of the advent of the global pandemic.
Caribbean countries, notably the heavily tourism-dependent islands, have seen their economies severely affected by the loss of visitor arrival-related revenue and Dr Robinson asserted that the response of the lending agencies had been disproportionate to the extent of the pandemic’s impact on the region.
“The multilateral financial institutions have failed Barbados and other Caribbean countries by not coming up with a package to assist these states hit hard by COVID-19,” said Dr Robinson, head of the SAGICOR Business School at the Cave Hill Campus.
Noting that countries in the region lack the financial resources to afford to undertake the countercyclical policies necessary to provide an adequate response to the ravages of the pandemic, the UWI academic opined that the reality was that in their present condition of heavy dependency tourism-driven economies, the fiscal and monetary responses of small island, tourism-dependent states in the region were woefully inadequate to mount a meaningful response to COVID-19.
Some Caribbean countries last week announced a relaxation in the strictures that have been put in place in the region in an attempt to roll back the impact of the pandemic, seemingly under pressure from private sector bodies in the region concerned over the strictures being placed on production and trading, though Dr Robinson suggested in his presentation at the Credit Union forum that the continued threat being posed by COVID-19 meant that further lockdowns in the region could not be ruled out. Alluding to what he sees as the likely longer-term scale of the present circumstance the SAGICOR Business School Head said that Caribbean countries are simply “unable to find the financial resources of the scale required to protect productive capacity, life and limbs, and maintain a social order and integrity.”
Seemingly particularly concerned with the regional healthcare implications of the pandemic, Dr Robinson asserted that Caribbean countries need temporary access to concessionary financing to help to strengthen healthcare systems, social security systems, and support for businesses and workers. “It is absolutely critical that the multilateral financial system, of which we have been faithful members since independence, do their utmost to support us through this period” he declared.
While he said that the publicly announced initiatives being undertaken by the MFI’s were duly noted, Dr Robinson said that these were inadequate to furnish an effective response to the needs of the heavily-dependent regional economies, adding that considerations of high per capita income, rendered countries in the region ineligible for such support as is being offered. Looking beyond what is currently on offer, Dr Robinson says that “multilateral institutions have an obligation to act more boldly to assist our economies at this time.”
