Skift Take
A more integrated, holistic and sustainable approach to Caribbean tourism is needed -- beyond the historic sun and sand -- for long-lasting economic development.
There is indeed a continuing conversation in many global quarters pertaining to the type of prescription necessary for the revival of the Caribbean economies. In Washington, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Inter American Development Bank (IADB) are lamenting about the evolving middle class in Latin America and the Caribbean.
While they have exercised much care and caution about defining the specific nations where the middle class is emerging, we must not lose sight of the fact that these two powerful agencies have not substantially addressed the growing poverty issues and decrease in quality of life among certain sectors of the region's population. In addition, there have been no indicators from these two agencies as to how an emerging middle class will contribute to the control of poverty; improve youth employment and improve the quality of life for the disadvantaged in a sustained manner.
To the great disappointment of many other global observers, the Washington and Geneva multilateralists are aggressively pursuing their selfish development agenda through deployment of financial resources and development of phony collaborative partnerships with their regional counterparts.
These agencies and their collaborators are yet to come forward with any viable and achievable suggestions regarding the revitalisation of our economies; managing our foreign policy reserves by decreasing imports and most important development strategies for a sustainable path that would the region's social and economic ills.
Addressing youth unemployment; rural development; access to information technology tools and en
