By Kimberly Ramkhalawan
December 16, 2022
Twelve months have gone, well atleast 11 and a half by the time I am complete writing this, one week to go to Christmas and two before the year officially calls it a wrap.
When 2022 all began, the world seemed entangled in many things, apart from what had looked like an emerging from pandemic mode, January came bringing the Omicron variant to the region, forcing us to continue to take necessary precaution against the virus. Many nations across the Caribbean Sea were still facing record number of deaths, including Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and Barbados.
The year also began looking at climate change through renewed eyes, after COP 27, with our small island developing states taking on the herculean task to mitigate the risks associated with global temperatures that continue to wreak havoc through unforeseen weather events out of normal seasons.
Organisations like Caribbean Climate Smart Accelerator with Racquel Moses at the helm getting a renewed vigour in their push for greener projects at all fronts, especially with Moses having been named United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Global Ambassador. The need for innovation tied into a multisectoral approach became the smart way to ensure Caribbean islands get the much-needed support for safeguarding their resources and economies at the same time all while pushing Blue, Green, and even Orange economies.
However, the dollar mark question has always arisen for these countries, who have often been overburdened by debt in their quest for developed status. Its this kind of smart, quick thinking, we saw Barbados’ Mia Amor Mottley begin to get even more vociferous at international conferences and meetings, never afraid to speak openly, and bluntly to the long standing systems that have so often disenfranchised regional SIDS. Her speech took the direction toward the Bretton woods of the modern world which still exists and seeks to cripple nations with what Mottley calls unjust interest rates that do not take into consideration the risks that come with climate change, and the impact natural disasters have on economies.
It can be said her tenacity to see these archaic systems be overhauled perhaps what put her, to being recognized as one of TIMES Magazine’s Most influential person of the year in May, 2022.
Mottley continued to shake up the course of things, with a blueprint that could be replicated by neighbouring CARICOM countries, when it signed on to a historic IMF loan, accessing some US$293M through its Resilience and Sustainability Trust Program. What makes this so interesting is that it allows Barbados long term financing at 150 percent of quota, equivalent to Special Drawing Rights of 141.75 million (about US$183 million) under the RST and an additional SDR 85.05 million (about US$110 million) under a 36-month arrangement facilitated through the Extended Fund Facility (EFF) with access to 90 percent of quota to maintain and strengthen macroeconomic stability in a more shock prone environment by enhancing fiscal sustainability, continuing and broadening implementation of the structural reform agenda.
This kind of financial set up for similar Caribbean nation’s has now been branded the ‘Bridgetown Initiative’ with Barbados at the forefront negotiating the IMF to make it something put forward as part of their financing strategies.
The Caribbean Development Bank introduced its Recovery Duration Adjuster (RDA), something touted the previous year, as a means of its members in the region accessing concessional finance to support rescue, recovery, and repositioning efforts that can build resilience and sustain overall economic development.
This was much received at CARICOM heads of government meeting, and at the start of 2022, as if the region could bare more suffering post the deadly COVID-19 Pandemic, the Russia Ukraine war began to have its impact quickly in the Caribbean. With the Eastern Europe states being some of the largest buyers of oil and producers of wheat and fertilizer, prices around the world, began to soar.
Convening their intercessional heads meeting hosted in Belize in late February, decisions were taken to reduce the Caribbean’s food import bill by 25 percent by 2025. Under the stewardship of Chairman for Agriculture, Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali saw it fit to host its first regional agro forum in May, gathering importers, and exporters of all things food and agriculture in the region to collaborate in finding solutions to the Caribbean’s food shortage.
It also saw a collaboration at state level, with Barbados providing livestock for mass rearing in the vast lands of Guyana. This kind of momentum seems to have been the change the region has been long been looking for, and my reasons for hailing it one of the more successful ventures to emerge in 2022.
In July, Trinidad and Tobago would host the second leg of the expo, where several private sector companies saw linkages established in areas of buying and selling cassava flour, to offset the demand for wheat, while creative ways of packaging vegetable crops in traditional Caribbean meals into instant mixes were another big hit, proving that for agriculture to be burgeoning, the element of private sector participation is critical.
Now don’t get me wrong, hurdles still do exist for the region, with intra-regional transport topping the list still. The archipelago of our Caribbean region has long suffered at the detriment of its own hands, unable to find a viable solution to making the region a smaller place for CARICOM’s Single Market Economy to truly become what it was imagined to be. With LIAT out of the picture, despite a call for its comeback, Barbados once again took the lead with it putting forward tenders for the private sector to come onboard supporting its inter-island dual cargo ferry.
It can be said that there were also many notable events in the region this year.
For Trinidad and Tobago, 2022 was marred by the tragic event surrounding the death of four deep sea divers at its Paria Fuel trading company. The death of the four men shook the nation to the core, and remains ever present in the minds of locals, with the current Commission of Enquiry ongoing this Christmas season, with while many stark revelations emerging, came of no surprise to the public, who from the looks of things, have become both judge and jury from the onset. This year, we say a special prayer for their widows, children, parents and loved ones, knowing that they have lost their breadwinners and source of income, with a legal battle that also seems like a case of David versus Goliath.
In November this year, unprecedented levels of rainfall resulted in widespread flooding well over six feet in the Caroni Plains, which lasted for almost a week, and damages leaving many despondent as to what is next for their homes. The out of peak rainy season event is proof of the impact climate change has on the islands.
June 24th also became historic for Grenada, with Dickon Mitchell toppling the reigns of its longest standing Prime Minister Keith Mitchell who served for some 22 years.
While a political stalwart was ousted, another stalwart won re-election unopposed by any significant opposition in that of Roosevelt Skerrit in Dominica. The opposing United Workers Party of Dominica decided not to stand for the December general elections, something that was a bit of a mistake on their part despite their point on severe election irregularities.
Of course, the year cannot go without a big bang, and for that the cryptocurrency scandal currently engrossing many, is the FTX collapse. At the centre of the scandal is The Bahamas and FTX founder, Sam Bankman-Fried who is accused of orchestrating a “massive, years-long fraud” in which he diverted billions of dollars of FTX customer funds for “his own personal benefit.” The latest developments has seen where a Bahamas judge denied the FTX founder of bail and custody until February 2023, citing a heightened flight risk for the onetime billionaire.
While the outcome of this might be one thing to look forward to seeing in the new year, we certainly do look forward to seeing a more COVID free Caribbean, while anticipating our region to keep up and perhaps inject some more energy in its momentum along the trajectory toward finding its voice, while becoming more resilient as a region united.