Caribbean Public Policy

The Caribbean is at a crucial phase in its development. Global and local pressures have seen the region losing its competitiveness, while it remains at risk of losing out on development gains made in the last few decades. These pressures are demanding improvements in the way government operates, particularly in its policy-making and administrative

This book focuses on public policy issues in Caribbean, evaluating current policy and suggests realistic improvements and alternatives. It also focuses on following themes: economic policy, the regional business environment, regionalism and integration, health care, labor and migration and gender.

Dated April 1995

Examines the problem of inedequate access to information and communication technology (ICT) and the need to develop appropriate pro-poor ICT policies. Shows how market reforms have failed to ensure that the benefits of the Information Society have spread across the region.

In an increasingly integrated world where the pace of change is accelerating, policy decisions need to be taken with little hesitation. However, their development effectiveness requires that they are also based on solid analytical foundations. Given the existence of information asymmetries and coordination failures, multilateral development institutions have an opportunity to support their member countries in the assessment of policies that require complex background analysis, particularly when their effects spill over beyond the border of any given country. In this context the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) have formed a partnership to promote a regional network of computable general equilibrium (CGE) modellers that facilitates the exchange of analytical findings, techniques and data, with the ultimate objective of better serving policy makers in policy formulation. The regional meetings of CGE modellers, held annually in a different country of the region, have been instrumental in promoting intraregional transfer of analytical technologies and in bringing the region closer to international best practices. This book includes a selection of studies discussed in past annual meetings on modelling. They deal with issues such as trade policy, regional integration, trade in services, fiscal policy, the impact of food price surges and climate change; are based on comparable methodologies; and shed light on crucial implications of crucial policy alternatives that Latin American regional policymakers are currently facing.

Developing countries, including those in the Caribbean, are urgently seeking to identify new moorings in the post–Cold War world, which is characterized by complex new economic and sociopolitical challenges. Caribbean countries must now compete for investment capital and markets while striving for social equity, maintaining representative democracy, and preserving the environment.This book offers a comprehensive overview of public policy issues in the region, looking in particular at these important themes: economic policy, the regional business environment, regionalism and integration, higher education, health care, labor and migration, gender, drug abuse and narcotrafficking, the environment, telecommunications, and science and technology. The contributors, all eminent representatives from the English, Spanish, French, and Dutch Caribbean, bring together culturally diverse viewpoints and address issues with a refreshing directness, assessing realities, challenges, and possible futures of the Caribbean.

This book combines an institutional political economy approach to policy making with social network analysis of social policy formulation processes. Based on extensive interviews with governmental and nongovernmental actors, the case studies of social policy formulation in Argentina, The Bahamas, Bolivia, and Trinidad and Tobago show that while societal actors are central in the networks in South American countries, government officials are the main participants in the Caribbean countries. The comparative analysis of the networks of ideas, information, economic resources, and political power across these cases indicates that differences in the types of bureaucratic systems and governance structures may explain the diversity of actors with decision power and the resources used to influence social policy formulation across the region. These analytical and methodological contributions-combined with specific examples of policies and programs-will help to enhance the efficiency, efficacy, and sustainability of public policies in the social arena.