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Regional Prosperity Attainable in numbers says Presidents of Multi-Lateral Development Banks during CDB’s 52nd Board of Governor’s Meeting

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By Dana Malcolm

Staff Writer

 

June 17, 2022 – Private sector partnerships are going to be the Caribbean’s saving grace as governments try to make the region the home of choice. This was the perspective of the heads of three major banks at the Caribbean Development Bank’s 2022 staging of their ‘Presidents Chat’, an event bringing together the presidents of multilateral development banks worldwide.

This year the meeting featured: Dr. Gene Leon president of the Caribbean Development Bank; Dr. Werner Hoyer president of the European Investment Bank and Mauricio Claver-Carone President of the Inter-American Development Bank along with past president of the CDB Dr. Warren Smith.

The Moderator of the event Dr. Marion Williams explained why the chat was so important.

“The series is designed to discuss issues in a non-technical manner that is readily accessible to citizens on all our continents,” she said

This year’s focus was on how multilateral development banks could play a catalytic role in finding innovative financing to push the development goals of their member countries, especially from the private sector; basically how to make companies want to invest within their member countries futures.

Most of the goals held by countries around the world stem from the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals including the elimination of poverty, enhancing food security, good health, quality education, climate action, etc. Leon explained the needs of the developing Caribbean states were huge and all of them needed to be tackled because,

“If we don’t do it all we simply cannot achieve the development goals.”

To make the Caribbean region a place of choice Leon said we must achieve four things; water, energy, food and quality of life security.

To meet these goals, the Caribbean had to have three key facilitators:

  • embracing a digital transformation

  • Solving our implementation capacity deficit

  • Strong evidence-based governance

Financing to hit all of these targets was the region’s biggest problem Leon said and ‘Access to Adequate and Affordable Finance’ (#AAAF) was the goal.

“There is no way we can fix a trillion-dollar problem with a million dollars…there is no way we can get there without crowding in [and] partnerships in all areas.”

Hoyer of the EIB lauded the CDB citing its unparalleled experience with development challenges noting that by working together they could “achieve so much more”, especially in climate action.

He stressed that the time for investing in issues like climate change was now or the most vulnerable would suffer.

“The provision of grants and loans is not enough. New financial instruments need to be deployed in order to bring private capital to fund climate action.”

Claver-Carone of the IDB, who is from Miami, describes himself as the closest president to the Caribbean (geographically) in years.

“It was on my agenda to raise the profile of the Caribbean with the bank.” He maintained

Allocations to the six Caribbean countries that the IDB serves have tripled to about $1.2 billion across 16 different projects. He described his relationship with the Caribbean Development Bank as his most important relationship of all as it enabled support to Caribbean countries which are not a part of the IDB.

Claver-Carone reiterated that the financing gaps in the Caribbean and Latin America are too large for taxpayers to handle.

“The recovery of Latin America and the Caribbean will be private sector led… We’re gonna make this the biggest public-private push in the history of the bank.”

Creating a good investment climate is key to achieving more privately-funded financing that the governments in the Caribbean desperately need.

To do this Claver-Carone said stricter regulations, digitized government to promote transparency and more aggressive moves towards garnering private sector investments are the needs for the region.

The IDB President said the Caribbean is viewed globally as a ‘sea of peace’ in comparison to the current state of the rest of the world, maintaining that “We’re gonna turn that peace and tranquility into prosperity.”

Caribbean News

CARPHA Progresses to Eligibility for the First Disbursement of Pandemic Funding

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Following a landmark Public Signing Ceremony for the Pandemic Fund (PF) Technical Cooperation Agreement (“Reducing the Public Health Impact of Pandemics in the Caribbean through Prevention, Preparedness, and Response” [RG-T4387] Project) on December 14, 2023, in Trinidad, the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) continues to progress towards the start of implementation.

 CARPHA fulfilled the IDB’s nine conditions prior to first disbursement, achieving full eligibility on March 15, 2024, and is now eligible for the first disbursement. This milestone achievement in just 3 months after the signing speaks to the commitment of both CARPHA, the Executing Agency, and IDB, the Implementing Entity, toward the regional PF project with the objective of supporting the reduction of the public health impact of pandemics in the Caribbean by building pandemic prevention, preparedness and response (PPR) surveillance & early-warning systems (EWS), laboratory systems and workforce capacity, regionally at CARPHA and in countries.

Since the signing of the Technical Cooperation Agreement and as part of the conditions prior to first disbursement, CARPHA has achieved the following key outputs (i) the development of the PF Project Operations Manual, Multi-annual Execution Plan, Procurement Plan, Financial Plan, Procedure for CARPHA’s Financial Reporting System; (ii) vacancy announcements for two tranches of consultants with the subsequent hiring of five (Technical Coordinator, Financial Specialist, Procurement Specialist, Operations Officer and Project Operations Coordinator) and (iii) the establishment of the Project Execution Unit (PEU) and Project Execution Steering Committee (PESC). The dedicated PEU will be responsible for execution according to its planned timelines, which will be led by the Dr. Lisa Indar, the Project Director (CARPHA’s Director of Surveillance, Disease Prevention and Control Division).

 CARPHA, as the lead regional public health agency and an expression of Caribbean Cooperation in Health is mandated by its Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) to support its 26 CARPHA Member States (CMS) in bolstering national systems and coordinating regional response to public health threats. The Agency works closely with regional and international agencies and uses regional mechanisms, surveillance systems, and networks for coordinating its public health response work.

In July 2023, the PF Governing Board announced that CARPHA’s regional entity proposal, entitled ‘Reducing the Public Health Impact of Pandemics in the Caribbean through Strengthened Integrated Early Warning Surveillance, Laboratory Systems and Workforce Development’ was successfully selected for the first round of financing. It was one of only 19 proposals selected from over 300 submissions and the only regional project. The three priority areas in the proposal are: (i) Comprehensive disease surveillance and EWS, (ii) Laboratory systems and (iii) Human resources and public health and community workforce capacity.

This project is expected to begin implementation in March 2024, starting off with a blended onboarding session. A Stakeholder Meeting with countries is tentatively planned for July 2024.

CARPHA remains dedicated to working together with the IDB, CARPHA Member States and the Pandemic Fund to successfully implement the regional proposal geared toward reducing the public health impact of pandemics in the Caribbean.

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Caribbean News

Men who had Murdered Man, Marley Higgs’ cell phone face Court

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Wilkie Arthur

Freelance Court Correspondent

The prosecution intends to try two young North Caicos men, both age 21 for the offense of possession of property of a murdered man, property that was stolen and landed in their possession.

The phone belonged to Peureton ‘Marley’ Higgs, who is believed to have been an innocent gunned down at his apartment complex in the Glass Shack area in a spray of bullets on February 2 that killed another man and wounded two others, including a ten-year-old little girl.

The cell phone was described as white in colour, an iPhone, in a hard black case. 

On Monday, March 18th, JEFFVANO HANDFIELD of North Caicos pleaded not guilty to the offense, and the matter was adjourned to April 2024. He was granted bail in the matter.

A second North Caicos man was charged similarly.  

SARENO CAPELLAN aka, Kino Williams is the second individual brought before the court pertaining to the said cellphone. He appeared in court a week after JEFFVANO HANDFIELD, the date being Monday March 25th 2024.

The case for the Crown is that both men sometime in February of this year possessed the cellphone knowing or suspecting it to be stolen property.

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Caribbean News

Supreme Court Closed for Easter

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NOTICE is hereby given that the Easter Recess shall commence on Friday 29th April, 2024 and end on Friday 5th April, 2024. During the Easter Recess Judge Selochan will be available to deal only with matters that are urgent or require prompt attention.

Court Business During the Easter Recess

A person who wishes to have a matter heard during the recess must file a certificate of urgency along with an affidavit, which must set out the reasons why the matter is urgent or requires prompt attention. The matter will not be listed during the recess unless the Judge deems it fit for urgent hearing.

Opening Hours During the Easter Holiday

The Supreme Court’s last sitting day for the first term is Thursday 28th March, 2024. The Court will officially resume sittings on Monday 8th April, 2024. The Supreme Court Offices in both Grand Turk and Providenciales will continue to operate while the Court is not sitting during the recess.

The Court Office will be closed on the following public holidays:

  • Friday 29th March, 2024 (Good Friday) CLOSED
  • Monday 1st April, 2024 (Easter Monday) CLOSED

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