A study on applicability of biotechnology to development in the Caribbean opportunities and risks

The present study analyzes the potential opportunities and risks involved in employing biotechnologies in the Caribbean region. This information would support developmental policies in the areas of food security, climate change and poverty reduction. The report provides a brief overview of biotechnology development, covering industrial and other microbial biotechnologies, tissue culture and molecular biology. Details of opportunities and risks of biotechnology development are provided for agricultural, industrial, environmental, industrial and medical biotechnology, with information on the global agreements for regulation of genetically modified organisms. The rest of the report analyzes the Caribbean situation. Biotechnology applications, opportunities and risks in the Caribbean are described in detail, with focus on industrial and agricultural biotechnology, and including climate change and constraints to biotechnology development. The report closes with a discussion of the applicability of biotechnology to the region in terms of agricultural, industrial, environmental, medical and marine biotechnology. Conclusions and recommendations are provided. The main conclusion of the study is that there is an urgent need for development and use of biotechnology in the Caribbean, especially in nonagro- biotech sectors, to address food security, climate change, poverty, environmental degradation, among other issues. In so doing, countries must take advantage of the opportunities presented by biotechnology to gain competitive advantage and benefits, while at the same time put measures in place to reduce or remove associated risks. This must be done taking into consideration economic as well as social and cultural issues.

Agricultural transformation and Gender considerations in Caribbean Economics

The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the gender and social disparities existing in the agricultural and rural sector in Caribbean economies. In this context, agricultural transformation as occasioned by the dismantling of preferential trading arrangements is analysed to identify the most relevant gender discriminatory measures in the current agricultural development policy and programmes. The analysis seeks to provide the basis for enhancing understanding among policy makers, planners and rural development practitioners of the gender and social dimension involved in the formulation of agricultural policy and more specifically in relation to the new policy and institutional arrangements for agriculture in the region. The paper also provides insights regarding what changes should take place to create an enabling environment for more gender-based approaches to policy-making and strategic planning in agricultural development and trade in the Caribbean. The methodology centred on the review of secondary sources that provide references on the new challenges, opportunities and constraints faced by the agricultural sector, in particular small farmers, in the context of globalization and agriculture transformation. Much of the literature for this assignment was obtained from FAO Headquarters in Rome and the FAO Subregional Office in Barbados, as well as the OECS Secretariat in St. Lucia. In the process of the review exercise, due consideration was given to changes in agricultural production patterns, resources allocation and rural livelihoods. Efforts to examine the most relevant policy measures and mechanisms in-place in support to agricultural development in the region were constrained, in the main, by the absence of gender disaggregated data. Documentation as regards the situation of women and men in relation to agricultural labour, rural income and food security situation in regions were limited. The use of the internet served to bridge the communication gap between countries and institutions. The preliminary draft of the paper was presented and discussed at the FAO/ECLAC/UNIFEM regional workshop on mainstreaming gender analysis in agriculture and trade policies, for Caribbean countries, in November 2003. The second draft of the paper was informed by comments from the workshop and additional information acquired through field visits to Barbados, St. Kitts and St. Vincent in March 2004. The three day visits to each of these three countries entailed a review/appreciation of the resource, constraints and institutional capacities for gender mainstreaming within the agricultural sector at the national level. This included visits to some of the major agricultural projects and interviews with farmers (where feasible) in respect of their perspective of the current situation of the agricultural sector and the viability of their farm enterprises. As well, meetings were held with relevant/available officials within the respective ministries of agriculture to discern the gender consideration as regards agricultural policy and planning at the country level. The internet was invaluable to the task of sourcing supplementary information to satisfy the aim of the paper; in respect of the identification of concrete policy measures and actions to formulate and develop more gender/social-responsive agricultural development policies. The final revision, though thwart with resource and communication constraints, was ultimately completed in compliance with the structure and approach proposed in the terms of references for this FAO/ECLAC assignment.

Population ageing in the Caribbean: An inventory of policies, programmes and future challenges

“We must be fully aware that while the developed countries became rich before they became old, the developing countries will become old before they become rich”. This statement made by Gro Harlem Brundtland, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General, at the World Assembly on Ageing in 2002 in Madrid, reflects the challenges that the developing world is facing in the twentieth century. Population ageing is a global phenomenon, which is having and will have major implications on all aspects of human life in every society. This process is enduring and irreversible, as observed from differing patterns and distinct paces in various regions and countries all over the world. The United Nations has undertaken various efforts to repeatedly draw governments’ attention to the growing demand for answers to these encompassing and profound demographic changes. Various initiatives on the global as well as on the regional and subregional level have been undertaken to highlight the pressing need for concerted action. Of importance in this regard are the numerous agreements reached at the global conferences on social development, population and women orchestrated by the United Nations in the 1990s, which all refer to ageing as an issue of particular concern. The year 1999 was proclaimed by the General Assembly1 of the United Nations as the Year of Older Persons to recognize ageing as one of the major achievements but, at the same time, as one of the major challenges all populations have to cope with in the twentieth century. This continuous call for action culminated in the Second World Assembly on Ageing, which was held in Madrid 2002, where governments agreed to the implementation of a global action plan. This new Plan of Action focuses both on political priorities such as improvements in living conditions of older persons, combating poverty, social inclusion, individual self-fulfilment, human rights and gender equality. To an increasing degree attention is also devoted to such holistic and overarching themes as intergenerational solidarity, employment, social security, health and well-being. Mandated by the Second World Assembly on Ageing, the Population Division of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC/CELADE) has convened the Regional Intergovernmental Conference on Ageing in November 2003 in Santiago, where a regional strategy for the implementation (ECLAC, 2003b) of the commitments reached in Madrid has been adopted. Further, a background document (ECLAC 2003a) on the situation of the elderly in the Latin American and Caribbean region, of which this document is a substantive part, has been presented to the meeting. Participating government officials formally committed themselves to work on a national follow-up strategy and to report on the progress made in the implementation of their commitments to the Ad hoc Committee on Population and Development to be convened in 2004.

Implementation of the 2014-2015 programme of work: subprogramme 13: subregional activities in the Caribbean

This report highlights the activities carried out by ECLAC in the Caribbean subregion between 1 January 2014 and 31 March 2015. Subprogramme 13 of the ECLAC programme of work 2014-2015 (“Subregional activities in the Caribbean”) covers the Commission’s work in Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Cuba, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago, as well as Anguilla, Aruba, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Curaçao, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Montserrat, Puerto Rico, Sint Maarten, the Turks and Caicos Islands and the United States Virgin Islands. Subprogramme 12 (“Subregional activities in Central America, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Mexico”) includes activities conducted in the Caribbean member States of Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Haiti. In addition, countries of the Caribbean were included in activities organized under the 12 other substantive subprogrammes of the ECLAC programme of work 2014-2015, namely: (i) linkages with the global economy, integration and regional cooperation; (ii) production and innovation; (iii) macroeconomic policies and growth; (iv) financing for development; (v) social development and equality; (vi) mainstreaming the gender perspective in regional development; (vii) population and development; (viii) sustainable development and human settlements; (ix) natural resources and infrastructure; (x) planning of public administration; (xi) statistics; and (xii) support for regional and subregional integration and cooperation processes and organizations.