Impact of new technologies on the development process in the Caribbean region

Includes bibliography

New technologies and methodologies for intervention to promote development

Includes bibliography

Estrategia Internacional de Desarrollo y establecimiento de un Nuevo Orden Económico Internacional: tercera evaluación regional, Guatemala, 1977 = International Development Strategy and establishment of a New International Economic Order: third regional appraisal, Guatemala, 1977

Evaluación de Guatemala. Resolución 362XVII aprobada por CEPAL en su Decimoséptimo Período de Sesiones, Guatemala, 1977

An outline of the Latin American Population Documentation Service (DOCPAL); a request to the Information Science Division of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Ottawa, Canada

Includes bibliography

Macroeconomics for development in Latin America and the Caribbean: Some new considerations on countercyclicality

Includes bibliography.

Latin America’s emergence in global services A new driver of structural change in the region?

Includes bibliography.

Reflections on the need for a new discourse on development

This issue of the FAL bulletin reflects on the need to place a new discourse at the centre of the academic, social and political debate, in relation to developing infrastructure services in a sustainable way.

New approaches by highway agencies in dealing with road users

The context in which society develops has changed. The principles of democracy and human rights, in addition to the explosive development of communications, have encouraged citizens' desire for involvement in many areas which formerly had been the preserve of the State. This is also reflected in the attitudes of public utility customers, who are no longer prepared to accept mediocre service from the bodies responsible; on the contrary, they are increasingly putting pressure on those bodies, demanding better service in return for the charges they pay. Road agencies are no exception. They can no longer maintain their traditional isolation from the public and from users in areas such as decision-making or accountability for results achieved. Furthermore, it is no longer enough to provide road networks; these must be managed in such a way as to ensure improved levels of service, acceptable to users who are more and more demanding. This is why conventional styles of highway management have become unsatisfactory and new approaches are developing. There is a gradual increase in openness to the interests and views of users, who are increasingly considered as partners and participants in management. There are numerous examples in various countries, including those of Latin America, of this significant change; it is likely to cause a major transformation in the way in which public highways are managed. The innovations are recent, many of them still at the embryonic stage. A wide variety of concrete measures have been proposed or tried out. It is not yet possible to predict the size or scope of these changes, or which of them will ultimately become normal practice, but the changes have begun. The purpose of this article is to outline the principal changes which are being observed and the new outlook for road users.

Welcome to new Heads of the Gender Department

In this issue of Gender Dialogue, we wish to congratulate Ms. Ingrid Charles- Gumbs, St. Kitts and Nevis; Ms. Miriam Roache, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Ms. Lera Pascal, Saint Lucia, on the assumption of the positions of heads of the national machineries in those countries. One of the purposes of this newsletter is networking and we are therefore providing some information on these three new officers, in our ‘Profiles of the new Heads of the national machineries for women’. We have also invited some of the “older hands” to share some of their experiences as head of national machineries and to give some advice. We are grateful to have received contributions from Ms. Anita Zetina (Belize) and Ms. Sheila Roseau (Antigua and Barbuda). We note that Ms. Jeannie Ollivierre, a long serving coordinator of the Women’s Bureau in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, has now retired from the public service and we wish her all the very best. Ms. Bernadette Springer of Saint Lucia is now the Administrator of the Gros Islet Polyclinic and Ms. Rosalyn Hazelle has been promoted to Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Social Development in St. Kitts and Nevis.

The tourism sector and the global economic crisis: development implicatins for the Caribbean

Over the past two years the global economy has experienced substantial economic turmoil, resulting in severe economic contraction. While there has been a recent return to growth, this situation has impacted all economic sectors worldwide. In the highly tourism-dependent region of the Caribbean, the impact of the global economic crisis has been most notable on the tourism sector, which, from the early 1990s, became the key driver of economic growth for the region. The eventual emergence of this sector reflects an economic development history which was previously underpinned by the export of agricultural commodities, and subsequently by the adoption of the import substitution industrialization model as promulgated by Arthur Lewis. This was further stimulated by spectacular economic contraction in Caribbean economies during the 1980s as a result of changes in the global terms of trade for commodities, generally low levels of competitiveness for manufactured goods, as well as weak institutional and governance frameworks. Ultimately, many economies began to reflect fiscal and balance of payments constraints. By the end of the 1990s, too, evidence of declining competitiveness even in the tourism sector began to become apparent particularly when evaluated under the framework of the Butler Tourism Area Life- Cycle (TALC) model. The recent economic crisis, therefore, provides an opportunity to reflect on the overall approach to economic development in the Caribbean, and to assess the implications of the region’s response to the crisis. This analysis makes the case for the future development of the sector to be based on two broad strategies. The first is to deepen the integration of the tourism sector into the broader economy through the diversification of the regional tourism product, as well as the enhancement of linkages with other sectors, while the second is to expand the tourism sector into a total service economy through the introduction of new services. Considering linkages, the development of clusters and value chains to support the tourism sector is identified with respect to agriculture and food, handicraft, and furnishings. Among the new services identified are education, wellness, yachting and boating, financial services, and information and communications technologies (ICT). This overall strategy is deemed to be better suited to the macroeconomic realities of the Caribbean, where high labour costs and other structural rigidities require a high-valued specialty tourism product in order to sustain the sector’s global competitiveness.