Improving Lives in the Caribbean

It is no secret that Caribbean Tourism has been severely impacted by the COVID-19 health crisis. Further, the decline in tourism activity has negatively impacted the region’s growth prospects and led to unprecedented spikes in unemployment. Economists in IDB’s Caribbean department have described the COVID-19 shock to tourism as an “unprecedented extreme outlier event,” and it’s believed that government interventions to support the sector and their citizens must be equally unparalleled.

In this second podcast in the series "Tourism in the Caribbean: Stories from the field during COVID-19," IDB Group Country Representative for Barbados, Juan Carlos De La Hoz Viñas, explores what it will take to reactivate the Tourism industry in the Caribbean. Viñas is joined by Vanessa Ledesma-Berrios, Chief Operations Officer, Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA), Neil Walters, Acting Secretary General, Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO), and Sylvia Dohnert, Executive Director, Compete Caribbean, and Private Sector Lead Specialist, IDB.

To access resources from this podcast please visit www.onecaribbean.org, www.caribbeanhotelandtourism.com, www.competecaribbean.org and our Caribbean regional hub https://devtrends.iadb.org/en.

This podcast was produced by Yajaira Archibald, Communications Consultant, IDB, Terry-Ann Coley-Graham, Social Media Editor, IDB, and Ariel McCaskie, Economics Consultant, IDB.

Countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, given the region’s dependence on tourism and travel, are highly exposed to the economic shock caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The tourism sector’s contribution to GDP will be severely impacted by the restrictions implemented to mitigate the spread of the virus.

We'll explore what initiatives are in place to support tourism organizations, governments and related actors in the industry to prepare the workforce for the sector’s accelerated digital transformation, and review how countries are incorporating eco-friendly measures to preserve natural resources and biodiversity. Could this crisis be the catalyst to revitalize the tourism sector?

In this podcast, IDB Group Country Representative for Barbados, Juan Carlos De La Hoz Viñas, speaks with IDB Lab's Dora Moscoso and Ruth Houliston and Compete Caribbean's Sylvia Dohnert on the research and work being undertaken in this area, including IDB Lab’s ongoing #BeyondTourismChallenge (convocatorias.iadb.org/en/beyondtourism) – A Caribbean call for proposals to re-envision the tourism sector. The deadline to submit is July 31 and offers financing up to US$2 million.

This podcast was produced by Yajaira Archibald (Communications Consultant), Terry-Ann Coley-Graham (Social Media Editor) and Ariel McCaskie (Economics Consultant).

Check out our blog: Check out our blog, How can we use innovation to transform post-pandemic tourism? https://blogs.iadb.org/caribbean-dev-trends/en/how-can-we-use-innovation-to-transform-post-pandemic-tourism/

To access the resources mentioned in this podcast, please visit our websites at www.idblab.org, www.competecaribbean.org and www.devtrends.iadb.org.

Research has shown that violence against women and children (VAWC) - particularly intimate partner violence (IPV) and severe punishment of children - tend to increase during times of stress and restriction of movements, such as during epidemics. In this podcast, experts from the region discuss why periods of high stress can cause violence to increase and what can be done at the individual and policy level to address the problem. In our Webinar on April 29, 2020, Laurence Telson (Operations Senior Specialist, Gender and Diversity Division, IDB), Dr. Peter Weller (Clinical Psychologist) and Professor Opal Palmer Adisa discuss, while Golda Lee Bruce (IDB Caribbean Development Storyteller) moderates.

Find out more about tackling the escalating family violence during COVID1-19 lockdown.
https://blogs.iadb.org/caribbean-dev-trends/en/home-not-so-sweet-in-times-of-covid19/

Explore more content from our work in the Caribbean region.
https://devtrends.iadb.org/en

The coronavirus pandemic has caused several 2020 Caribbean festivals carnivals to be canceled or postponed. Festival stakeholders are being forced to rethink their offerings to maintain their appeal and remain profitable.

Listen to our conversation with Caribbean cultural and entertainment leaders on the future of festivals in the region (this was originally recorded during a webinar on June 9, 2020). Kamal Bankay (Chairman - Jamaica Sports and Entertainment Network), Valmiki Maharaj (Band Leader - The Lost Tribe, Tribe Carnival Group), Carol Roberts-Reifer (CEO – Barbados National Cultural Foundation) and Vashtie Dookiesingh (Senior Specialist – IDB Lab) answer the question how can Caribbean celebrations adapt to the changing world?, moderated by Golda Lee Bruce, Development Storyteller for the IDB Caribbean Department.

To learn more about policies that support creative industries read our publication here: https://publications.iadb.org/en/public-policies-creativity-and-innovation-promoting-orange-economy-latin-america-and-caribbean.

Further, you can see our work promoting creative industries in the Caribbean and other issues related to the region's development by exploring our new website: https://devtrends.iadb.org/en.

Interested in more of the Bank's resources on creative industries check out our recent publications below.

Video games
https://publications.iadb.org/en/video-games-more-just-game-the-unknown-successes-of-latin-american-and-caribbean-studios

Technocreatives
https://publications.iadb.org/en/technocreative-entrepreneurships-creativity-and-technology-allies-or-enemies

Launching an Orange Future
https://publications.iadb.org/en/launching-orange-future-fifteen-questions-getting-know-creative-entrepreneurs-latin-america-and

50 innov
https://publications.iadb.org/en/orange-economy-innovations-you-may-not-know-were-latin-america-and-caribbean

Future Landscape of the Orange Economy
https://publications.iadb.org/en/future-landscapes-orange-economy-creative-pathways-improving-lives-latin-america-and-caribbean

The Orange Economy
https://publications.iadb.org/en/orange-economy-infinite-opportunity

Explore more content from our work in the Caribbean region.
https://devtrends.iadb.org/en

We were joined in a webinar on April 20, 2020 by Allison Peart, Managing Director of A. Peart Advisory Services Ltd of Jamaica, Zulfikar Ally, President of The American Chamber of Commerce in Guyana and Vincent Vandepool-Wallace, Founder of The BedfordBaker Group. Our panelists held a wide-ranging discussion on the impact of the economic slowdown on businesses, options for adaptation and diversification as well as retaining staff. Options included the exploration of COVID-free corridors for Caribbean tourists to spark a revival of the region’s tourism sector.

This podcast is moderated by Golda Lee Bruce, Development Storyteller and Caribbean Communications Coordinator at the IDB.

For more information on development in the Caribbean visit our website: https://devtrends.iadb.org/en.

What is a risk and how do you manage them in projects?
What are positive versus negative risks and how do you stay on top of them? What is the difference between a problem and a risk and how do we apply this to the coronavirus outbreak?

Sheries Ruddock, Operations Associate at the IDB, discusses with Golda Lee Bruce, Development Storyteller and Communications Coordinator at the IDB, how critical risk management is to projects and how this applies to development work and today’s world.

Risk Management in projects is not a methodology but a change of mindset, focusing proactively on managing risk that includes stakeholders, more than problem-solving in a reactive and individual way.

To gain further knowledge and skills in risk management, you can enroll now in our massive open online course (MOOC) Risk Management in Development Projects. The course is designed for project management practitioners and introduces them to basic knowledge and practice of risk management in development projects. What’s more, is that it's self-paced, offered in three languages (English, Portuguese and Spanish) and provides 30 PDUs for those with project management professional certification. We encourage PMP and CAPM certified persons to participate!

Here are the links to enroll in the course:

English - https://www.edx.org/course/risk-management-in-development-projects

Portuguese - https://www.edx.org/course/gestao-de-riscos-em-projetos-de-desenvolvimento

Spanish - https://www.edx.org/course/gestion-de-riesgos-en-proyectos-de-desarrollo

You can find more about MOOCs on our DevTrends blog:
https://blogs.iadb.org/caribbean-dev-trends/en/learning-for-caribbean-development/.

Finally, make sure to check out all our work in the Caribbean region here.
https://devtrends.iadb.org/en

Government transactions like requesting a birth certificate, registering a property, or opening a business, are how citizens and companies connect with the government. Efficient government transactions enhance the business climate, citizen perception of government and access to crucial public programs and services. In the Caribbean, however, government transactions are often headaches. On average, they take more than 4 hours to complete, and more than 30% of transactions require 3 or more visits to public offices.

Angela Reyes, Digital Government Consultant, IDB, and Benjamin Roseth, Modernization of the State Specialist, IDB, discuss these issues and the solutions with Golda Lee Bruce, Development Storyteller and Communications Coordinator. IDB.

Want to know more about this subject, please visit:

https://blogs.iadb.org/caribbean-dev-trends/en/wait-no-more-improving-government-services-in-the-caribbean/

https://publications.iadb.org/en/wait-no-more-citizens-red-tape-and-digital-government-caribbean-edition

Explore more content from our work in the Caribbean region.
https://devtrends.iadb.org/en

Finding and fostering talent for growth in the Caribbean is important to us, that’s why we held a conversation with Golda Lee Bruce, Development Storyteller and Communications Coordinator, IDB, and Paola Holst, Senior HR Business Partner, IDB, to discuss opportunities at the Bank and how to break-in.

If you’re interested in improving lives with us, you can check out the following links.

-https://jobs.iadb.org/en
-https://jobs.iadb.org/en/our-stories
-https://iadbcareers.referrals.selectminds.com/
-https://jobs.iadb.org/en/our-culture

Explore more content from our work in the Caribbean region.
https://devtrends.iadb.org/en

Healthy environments equal better lives. Jamaican superheroes and finalists in the IDB's Superheroes of Development pitch competition, Loúreene Jones and Andre Reid, share with Golda Lee Bruce how the Yallahs Hope Project fights to preserve invaluable ecosystem services (biodiversity, water, etc.) of 2 key watersheds in the country and strengthen their resilience to climate change. A pivotal part of the project was their work with farmers and communities to utilize sustainable land practices and to even prevent and control forest fires that can be severely damaging.

https://blogs.iadb.org/sostenibilidad/en/bringing-ecosystem-valuation-environmental-accounting-on-the-public-balance-sheet-the-case-for-the-yallahs-hope-river-watersheds-in-jamaica/

Explore more content from our work in the Caribbean region.
https://devtrends.iadb.org/en

Guyana's Sustainable Housing for the Hinterland Program was selected for the IDB's annual Superheroes of Development pitch competition. Development partners Donnel Bess-Bascom and Cy Rodrigues discuss with Golda Lee Bruce how housing conditions, family dynamics and community culture improved for people who live in the Hinterland of Guyana and how the people themselves were leaders in this process of change. For more visit: https://www.iadb.org/en/improvinglives/fourteen-people-one-room-housing-and-hope-guyana.

Further, explore more content from our work in the Caribbean region.
https://devtrends.iadb.org/en