Noel Thompson, Freelance Writer

Hughes

WESTERN BUREAU:

Director General of the Planning Institute of Jamaica, Dr. Wesley Hughes, has called on policy makers in the Caribbean to employ innovative methods to arrest developmental challenges facing the region.

Dr. Hughes said that in spite of the region having enjoyed significant growth and development, poverty, inequity, crime, unemployment, social exclusion and alienation remain significant features in the region. He noted that the traditional tools to address these problems were becoming less effective.

He was addressing a two-day conference on Friday at the Half Moon Conference Centre in Montego Bay, sponsored by the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), and entitled 'Opportunities for the Majority in the Caribbean'.

Identifying new methods

The conference, the first of its kind in the Caribbean, was held with the objective of identifying new development methods to serve the region through public, private and civil society partnerships.

Research analyst at the World Resources Institute, Robert Katz, said Jamaica was chosen to host the conference over other countries in the region because it had superior survey data, among other reasons, compared to its neighbours.

Highlighting poverty reduction in Jamaica, Dr. Hughes said: "We have reduced the incidence of poverty through targeted interventions, structural changes, major investments and economic growth to a rate of 14.3 per cent in 2006, down from nearly 30 per cent in the mid 1990s."

Increasingly more difficult

He said, however, that further reduction would become increasingly more difficult unless many structural issues of development were addressed.

Speaking against the background of the "majority", Dr. Hughes defined it as the region's largest untapped market for business innovation, partnerships and profits, stressing "this is a narrow lens through which to see the majority".

"There needs to be a shift away from seeing the poor as 'the target market' or consumers only. They must also be seen as creators of wealth, innovators and entrepreneurs," posited Dr. Hughes. "Just as we seek to promote business among the poor, so too must we be facilitators, enablers or social entrepreneurs. The opportunity for the majority must result in the majority being able to lift themselves out of poverty," Dr. Hughes added.