Every political party in the Caribbean prides itself in being a champion for the poor, the rhetoric increases whenever an election is near. Sometimes one wonders what will happen to the fabric of these political parties if suddenly there are no more poor people in the state. The only saving grace is the words of Jesus – ‘The poor will be with you always’.
Recently, I read a document entitled ‘Poverty Assessment Report – St Lucia December 1995 – A SUMMARY DOCUMENT’. The document was part of a study that sought to understand the phenomenon of poverty in Saint Lucia. The findings were based on a National Survey, a Survey of selected communities and a review of Key Institutions and Organizations. The objective of the study was to arrive at measures to address both the immediate conditions of poverty and the underlying factors that lead to such poverty.
We are now almost twenty years on from that report. As a country the Government would have spent over 20 billion dollars in the ensuing period, and yet still after 20 billion dollars of Government expenditure and a few billion more in foreign direct investment into the economy, the poverty levels have increased in the 20 years. Something is fundamentally wrong if in a country of 170,000 people there are still more than 25% considered poor after an injection of over 30 billion dollars into the economy in a 20 year period. This economic model is a failure.
However let us go back to the Poverty Assessment Report of 1995 and to see what was proposed and the implementation of the recommendations after 20 years. All would agree that if the reduction of poverty was such an all embracing thought of our government, then over a twenty year period these recommendations would have been implemented.
This is a snap shot of the situation that existed in Saint Lucia in 1995:
- 18.7 percent of household were poor
- 25.1 percent of the population were poor
- 7.1 percent of the population were consider indigent in that their expenditures were inadequate to cover their dietary requirements
- 16.3 percent of the urban population were poor
- 29.6 percent of the rural population were poor
The Report of 1995 presented the following as the primary or ultimate causes of poverty:
- The decline in the earnings from the banana industry
- The decline in wage competitiveness of St Lucia in the area of export-oriented light manufacturing and assembly operations
- The sluggish response in the creation of new viable activities or in increasing existing activities to take up the slack caused by the decline in the sectors of agriculture and manufacturing
- The impossibility of the Government in taking counter-cyclical action by increasing public expenditure
- The limitations of the existing safety- net because of inadequacy of resources
In 2015, we are in the same position, and thus just maybe the recommendation may still be valid. The Report recommended in part the interventions in specific sectors. These sectors were (a) Agriculture and Fisheries and (b) Tourism/Eco-Tourism. (c) Services and (d) Small and Medium sized Enterprises
In Agriculture and Fisheries the focused was to be on the reduction of imports, which I fully agree should be the focus. In March 2015, it is still impossible to get a locally grow watermelon in our supermarket on some days. I have taken a deliberate decision not to buy imported watermelons again, as my small form of protestation. We still have imported tomatoes and pumpkin in our supermarket shelves. We cannot reduce poverty in a STEP Programme model, it is best to use that money to give these people seeds to plant and fertilizer. The country saves foreign exchange, there is income generation and the poor have food to eat. Also, small scale agro-processing can be pursued. Why can’t I go to the supermarket and obtain peeled and cut dasheen, or a package of chopped vegetables for a soup mix. Sounds simple to me.
In Tourism /Eco- Tourism, the recommendation was to spread the tourism/eco-tourism activities throughout the country. Our Tourism product is concentrated in two main areas, Soufriere and Gros Islet. If you can bring tourism activities into new areas, then you can effect poverty reduction. St Lucia has over 685,000 cruise ship passengers per year coming on over 375 cruise ships. We cannot be satisfied with allowing these guests to our shores to be exposed to purchasing a T shirt made in Bangladesh in the Vendor’s Arcade. In fact, this structure is in itself an embarrassment.
It is most interesting that the islands of the Caribbean where there are poor soils due to their geology, are the islands that have done well. Anguilla, The British Virgin Islands, Aruba, Turks and Caicos, are all ahead in a GDP per capita listing. The Windward Islands that stayed in bananas are in the following positions in a GDP per capita listing:
- Grenada – 92nd
- Saint Lucia – 93rd
- St Vincent & Grenadines – 98th
- Dominica – 99th
We got so spoilt with bananas, that we forgot the other aspects in the diversification of our economies. These other islands were ahead of us in financial services and tourism. I have not seen any slum areas in Anguilla or Tortola, there may be poverty but certainly not at the level we have in St. Lucia. The transformation of our economy must begin now; the economic model has failed us.