- Junior DowieConsultants on the UNCTAD/UNDP Country Assessment Study on Jamaica are, from left, Dr. Damien King, of the University of the West Indies; Jagdish Saigal, senior programme manager UNCTAD/UNDP Global Programme; and team leader Professor David Bloom, of Harvard University.
Donna Ortega, News Editor
INITIAL reactions last week to the Country Assessment Study on Jamaica sponsored by two United Nations bodies conceded that, although its research was thorough, nothing new had so far emerged.
Stakeholders from various interest groups in business, academia, media and civil society endorsed the need for careful assessment of the state of the nation in the global context. However, most appeared to agree that more work remained to be done for the consultants to deliver the promised "fresh" perspective on Jamaica's development.
However, in their defence, the team of consultants led by Harvard University Professor, David Bloom, reiterated their view that the study itself was a "process" and was not purely an "all-time solution" to Jamaica's problems.
Professor Bloom told journalists at a press conference in Kingston last week that the intention was to put forward a process of dialogue. He wanted the study to be seen as forward-looking rather than a post- mortem of the past, and suggested that the programme would "play a catalytic role from now on."
Consensus
The fact that liberalisation is necessary, but not sufficient, for economic progress was an idea that the team wanted to crystallise among stakeholders then forge a consensus to move forward to get to implementation strategies, Professor Bloom said.
After about a year of research and deliberations, the consultants' Study on Globalisation, Liberalisation and Sustainable Human Development in Jamaica sponsored by UNCTAD/UNDP found that increased productivity, strict debt management and education were key to achieving sustainable development.
Their report also argued in favour of "easing interest rates" to stimulate domestic investment and help leverage Jamaica's entrepreneurial energy." New sectors and business innovations and the pursuit of information technology to inject new skills into the economy were among its recommendations.
In summing up the outcome of their workshop at Le Meridien Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in Kingston last Tuesday, facilitator Professor C.Y. Thomas, pointed to the way forward. "It's a process," he maintained, "not the end product." Areas of follow-up required detailed work to take the study into specific sectors such as trade, agriculture, tourism and mining, as well as to follow up on specific issues related to human rights. In addition to getting assistance from technical institutions there was also a need to find a mechanism for institutionalising the process such as a network (web site), vehicle of publication and study groups.
UNDP resident representative in Jamaica Gillian Lindsay-Nanton said that she had found the workshop "rich and useful," and it was now necessary to take forward some of what had been heard and to hold further discussions with stakeholders.
Former president of the Small Businesses Association of Jamaica, Robert Wynter, in a follow-up interview with Sunday Business said that the consultants had done their research well. "However, I found some of the statistics were very misleading. For example showing murders decreased between 1997 and 1999 when really there's been a substantial increase over the past ten years. When we butter up statistics there's a sense of satisfaction and we believe things are going well when we're not going forward."
Mr. Wynter, who was representing the Jamaica Employers Federation at the workshop, said, "The presentation falls short of implementable recommendations. We all knew before that human development is key to sustainability."
He also took issue with the assertion by Minister of Industry, Commerce and Technology, Phillip Paulwell, that he was committed to a paradigm shift towards emphasis on knowledge-based technologies in keeping with global trends. "The Minister's opening remarks indicating a move from natural resource endowments to knowledge-based economy is a stark contrast to the Government's decision to continue to support the sugar industry which is contributing to poor economic performance," Mr. Wynter said.
Management consultant and trainer Dr. Lloyd Eubank-Green agreed that the consultants had "done a lot of work" but "in a sense were coming up with things we already knew. What we need are 'out of the box' solutions," he argued. A direct policy to capitalise on the remittance factor in supporting the economy and reparation in the form of debt forgiveness could not be ruled out of the attempt to level the playing field, he said.
Executive Director of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica, Charles Ross, listed on the title page as one of the contributors to the discussions and information which went into the study, regarded the presentation as excellent. It provided interesting and useful information, he said.
"I agree with Professor Bloom in the analysis of the problems facing economy and the changes need to be made to overcome these problems. I also agree with the general position that he took that we still have tremendous resources in terms of our people. We can certainly exploit those demographics, if we can just get the macro-economic policy to encourage the development of jobs and investment."
Investment
Mr. Ross observed that, "If you're in a market economy, what you want from your private sector are high levels of investment and that investment can only take place if the macro-economic conditions are valid.
"A lot of the other institutional problems really pale into insignificance when you consider the dampening effect of the high interest rate policy. So if you want the private sector to get active you really have to have the enabling macro-economic policy environment. And that will require lower interest rates."
Lynette Vassell of the Coalition for Community Participation in Governance, noted the positive elements of the study. She appreciated the "sense of urgency that was brought to the issue" by sociologist Dr. Aldrie Henry-Lee's analysis which concluded that human development is necessary for economic development. "If somehow we can grasp that we'll recognise what we have to do as a people," Mrs. Vassell said.
Without "real relationship building to decide how we are going to respond, we are going to sink," she warned.
"I thought that the papers, while individually, very sound no doubt, in some aspects did not speak about this relationship; they did not link human development with liberalisation to trade policies and therefore the texture and the dynamic relationship between those things were not brought out. For example when you look at what is happening in terms of the poverty that is growing in certain areas this is exactly linked to what another person said about liberal trade policies that open our economy to imports that are subsidised. It is linked to the fact that globalisation has restricted the options that we have as a country to take decisions for ourselves. So we have to cut back on social services which creates dependency, creates problems for families and this, in particular, creates problems for women.
"I was very concerned that the whole gender dynamics are not coming out. When we talk about shifts in power relations for example. you see that globalisation has undermined the capacity of people's ability to organise because we are so busy looking at issues of survival. Structural adjustment and globalisation have continued to deteriorate the capacity of the community to organise and respond to this issue and the people are most vulnerable at that level, at the level of the family and at the community are women.
"Therefore the whole question of getting women's views, getting women's experiences to shape the policies has to become an important imperative of how to go forward," she said.
