Discussion 1

1. Discuss at least 2 Caribbean development issues identified (400-600 words)

Caribbean Issues identified:

1. Poverty eg in Haiti, Guyana

2. Unemployment eg youth unemployment

3. Migration

4. Coping with natural disasters

5. Reducing crime

6. Massive debt increase

Replies 2: Delora
The Caribbean is a very unique region in the world. It is however plagued with several
developmental issues, including but not limited, to high emigration rates particularly among the
educated classes; increasing poverty and unemployment rates; heightened rates and
sophistication of crimes; and increased susceptibility to natural disasters resulting from climate
change. While these and many other issues represent the principal socio-economic ills of our
small island nations, I will seek to focus on the themes of poverty and crime.
Poverty is the state of being poor. The World Bank Organization describes poverty as hunger,
the lack of shelter, being sick and unable to visit a doctor, not having access to education, the
inability to work or having access to employment. Crime on the other hand is ‘an action or
omission that constitutes an offence that may be prosecuted by the state and is punishable by
law’.
Poverty can be regarded as one of the causes of crime because it incorporates the social,
psychological and political aspects. In a report prepared by the World Bank - UNODC in 2007,
it is indicated that crime impacts growth and development and contributes to increase levels of
poverty.
Within the Caribbean region poverty is said to be the most prominent cause of crime.  The
growth of poverty in urban communities have increased significantly, thus relating to the
increased crime rates.  Young men are disproportionately represented among the victims and
perpetrators of crime. (UNODC and World Bank, 2017). It is a fact that poverty breeds criminal
activities.
Poverty is the major factor contributory factor that goes into making criminals in urban
communities. Some persons are driven to desperation because they are poor, some are
involved in the drug trade because they want to get rich and get out of poverty. In a study of
urban violence in Jamaica, Moser notes that poverty undermines the role of the family. Long
hours are compensated with low wages thus causing the support and development of children
to minimal and vulnerable to gangs. Moser indicates that Poverty is often accompanied by
substandard living conditions with contributes to frustration, anger violence and crime.  
It is said that poverty of the mind is a source of crime, hence it is imperative that policies are
put in place to enable the environment for programs to reduce poverty and crime through
collaborations with central and local government, NGOs and organizations along with donor
agencies.

I agree with many of your points in relation to poverty being directly relational to causes of
crime because it incorporates the social, psychological and political aspects. As stated in the
report by Kathuria et al (2005) there exists formidable challenges ahead especially as some
countries like Haiti and the Dominican Republic still have high levels of poverty. The question
asked now is, have anti-poverty strategies and welfare programmes worked? What should be
done now? The purpose of this is to highlight why some countries have high poverty levels and
ways they can be addressed.

Bowen (2007) observed that there exist no single approach to all Caribbean countries yet one
thing is agreed upon and that is NGOs, community organisations and ordinary people should be
involved in programmes to reduce poverty, develop human capital and improve social welfare. A
critical contributing factory as to why poverty in Haiti is so high include political corruption, the
‘brain drain’, business monopolies, deforestation, decreased tourism and the economic
embargo of the 1990s. For other countries the widespread use of social safety net programmes
such as national insurance, food stamps and student loans can target resources where they are
needed most but in the end they serve to alleviate rather than reduce poverty (Bowen, 2007).

Some recommendations to dealing with poverty and by extension crime is firstly, the
development of a comprehensive action plan with explicit targets, budgets and effective
organizations especially in a country like Haiti, as political stability is needed in order to reduce
poverty and corruption.

Secondly, the diversification into sectors like agriculture, manufacturing and tourism by
Governments should be used to promote economic growth and maintain stability. For instance
the incentive program of $100,000 (TTD) provided by the Agriculture Development Bank (ADB)
in 2018 (Wilson, 2018), that target farmers so that they can increase production, better
sustainability, improvement in health and safety conditions, and have resistance to climate
change.

Thirdly, social development programmes should involve non-governmental organisations

(NGOs) and community-based organizations (CBOs) in information sharing, consultation and
decision making at the local level. This I can speak directly about as we recently started a
climate smart garden in a community green space, in conjunction with Habitat for Humanity
Trinidad and Tobago, UWI and this is being funded by UNDP (UNDP, n.d). The purpose of this is
to directly feed our community, as well as, employ underprivileged members in the community
so that housewives and others can be work close to home and not be far away from their
children. This approached has proven to be successful for urban agriculture in Japan (Terada et
al, 2017) and social benefits of such activities include environmental education for children and
young people, improved food security, revitalization of the local community, engaging the
elderly as productive citizens, and crime reduction (Okvat and Zautra 2011; Bendt, Barthel,
and Colding 2013).

Bibliography

Bowen, G. A., 2007, 'The challenges of poverty and social welfare in the Caribbean',
International Journal of Social Welfare, vol.16, no. 2, pp. 150-158 Retrieved from
https://gsdrc.org/document-library/the-challenges-of-poverty-and-social-welfare-in-the-
caribbean/
Bendt, P., Stephan B., and Colding J. 2013. “Civic Greening and Environmental
Learning in Public-Access Community Gardens in Berlin.” Landscape and Urban Planning
109 (1): 18-30.
Kathuria et al. (April 2005). A Time to Choose: Caribbean Development in the 21st Century.
Caribbean Country Management Unit/Poverty Reduction and Economic Management
Unit. Retrieved from https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/10330
Terada, T., Yokohari, M., and Amemiya, M. (2017): Urban Farming in Tokyo: Towards an
Urban-Rural Hybrid City. In: Lewis, T. Chandola T. (Eds). Green
Asia: Ecocultures, Sustainable Lifestyles and Ethical Consumption, Routledge, New York. (pp.
155-168
Terada, T., Yokohari, M., and Amemiya, M. (2017): Urban Farming in Tokyo: Towards an
Urban-Rural Hybrid City. In: Lewis, T. Chandola T. (Eds). Green
Asia: Ecocultures, Sustainable Lifestyles and Ethical Consumption, Routledge, New York. (pp.
155-168
Terada, T., Yokohari, M., and Amemiya, M. (2017): Urban Farming in Tokyo: Towards an
Urban-Rural Hybrid City. In: Lewis, T. Chandola T. (Eds). Green
Asia: Ecocultures, Sustainable Lifestyles and Ethical Consumption, Routledge, New York. (pp.
155-168
Terada, T., Yokohari, M., and Amemiya, M. (2017): Urban Farming in Tokyo: Towards an
Urban-Rural Hybrid City. In: Lewis, T. Chandola T. (Eds). Green
Asia: Ecocultures, Sustainable Lifestyles and Ethical Consumption, Routledge, New York. (pp.
155-168
Okvat, H. A, & Zautra, A.J. 2011. “Community Gardening: A Parsimonious Path to
Individual, Community and Environmental Resilience.” America Journal of Community
Psychology 47 (3-4): 374-87.
Terada et al. (2017). Urban farming in Tokyo: toward an urban-rural hybrid city. In: Lewis, T.
Chandola T. (Eds). Green Asia: Ecocultures, Sustainable Lifestyles and Ethical
Consumption, Routledge, New York. (pp. 155-168). Retrieved from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/322759080_Urban_farming_in_Tokyo_toward_an_u
rban-rural_hybrid_city

UNDP GEF Small Grants Programme. (n.d). Climate smart agriculture technologies as an
opportunity for increasing community sustainability. Retrieved from
https://www.sgp.undp.org/~sgpundp/index.php?option=com_sgpprojects&view=projec
tdetail&id=26197&Itemid=272

Wilson, S. (2018, September 17). Farmers to get $100,000 incentive this month. Trinidad and
Tobago Guardian. Retrieved from
http://www.guardian.co.tt/news/farmers-to-get-100000----incentive-this-month-6.2.668
557.2f78474627