Bahamas News
UNDP introduces new Country Programme for the Bahamas at regional ‘Partnership Roundtable’ series debut in Nassau
Invites local, regional and international partnerships for sustainable development
#TheBahamas, May 5, 2023 – The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has unveiled a number of development solutions aligned to The Bahamas’ national priorities and opened the door for further cooperation on new solutions, under its 2022 – 2026 Country Programme.
UNDP Resident Representative, Denise E Antonio, urged local, regional, and international organizations, as well as
donor countries, to partner with the UNDP in enhancing existing initiatives and creating new innovative solutions that align with the developmental goals and aspirations of the Bahamian people.
UNDP introduced its five-year Country Programme in Bahamas along with its development services to government officials, civil society, diplomatic corps, and development partners during the debut of UNDP’s sub regional Partnership Roundtable series on Monday 17th April 2023, at The Balmoral.
The new Country Programme will prioritize development solutions that focus on social resilience and inclusion, citizen safety and security and rule of law, climate change resilience, and sustainable natural resource management over the next five years. These priorities were developed following consultations under the regional Multi Country Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework led by the United Nations Resident Coordination team.
“We are committed to supporting the goals and aspirations of our host countries. Our role is to provide technical assistance and to leverage our resources, networks, facilities, and partnerships to support national priorities. Our Country Programme pillars serve as a framework to guide our collaborative efforts with countries towards achieving sustainable development outcomes,” she said.
In a keynote address delivered by the Honourable Jamahl Strachan, Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on behalf of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Strachan said that the Region looks to the UNDP to serve as an interlocutor, and to provide that advocacy support in the meeting halls of the international financial institutions regarding the acceptance of a multi-dimensional vulnerability index.
He also applauded the UNDP for the creation of the Mobile App for persons with disabilities as well as for the significant support rendered to the UNDP Abaco Hurricane Shelter/Community Centre Project.
“UNDP’s universal presence, commitment to transparency, world-leading operational standards, and global knowledge networks and expertise enable us to bring significant value to any partnership we form,” said Linda Maguire, Deputy Regional Director for UNDP in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Under the 2022 – 2026 Country Programme, UNDP is actively supporting the government in the implementation of several initiatives in The Bahamas including projects that aim to strengthen public debt management frameworks promote innovative financing tools for women and youth; establish a hurricane shelter in Abaco; and prepare Bahamas for the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. UNDP is also partnering with communities and NGOs to advance climate change adaptation and mitigation through the UNDP-implemented Global Environment Facility Small Grants Programme. Ms Antonio expressed her gratitude to UNDP’s current donor partners including Government of India, the Joint SDG Fund, GEF and UN agencies. 
UNDP has collaborated with various local partners, including the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Social Services and Urban Development Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Public Works, Disaster Reconstruction Authority, Bahamas Reef Environment Educational Foundation, and National Council for Persons with Disabilities, on both past and current development solutions. Under the previous country programme (2017-2021), UNDP worked alongside government and civil society to support The Bahamas’ recovery, relief, and resilience agenda in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian.
The Bahamas is one of 42 countries served by UNDP’s Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean. The UNDP Multi Country Office in Jamaica serves Jamaica, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, The Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands. On 12th July 1974, the Government of The Bahamas became the first among the UNDP Multi Country Office’s five partner countries and territories to formally establish an agreement with UNDP.
Photo Captions
Header: Following the UNDP‘s Partnership Roundtable, evet organizers and invited guests mingled. They include, from left From left, event moderator Krissy Hanna, Vice Chancellor, Bahamas Alrae Ramsey Institute of Foreign Service; Chinese Ambassador Dai Qingli; United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative for Bahamas, Jamaica, Bermuda, Cayman Islands and Turks and Caicos Islands, Denise E Antonio; Linda Maguire, Deputy Director, UNDP in Latin America and the Caribbean; Jamahl Strachan, Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Honourable Vaughan Miller, Minister of Environment and Natural Resources; Kirk Cornish, Member of Parliament for North Abaco; Thomas Hartley, British High Commissioner ; Phedra Rahming Turnquest, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources; Phyllis Baron, Country Representative, Organization of American States (OAS)
1st insert: United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative for Bahamas, Jamaica, Bermuda, Cayman Islands and Turks and Caicos Islands, Denise E Antonio.
2nd insert: Jamahl Strachan, Parliamentary Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
3rd insert: Linda Maguire, Deputy Director, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Latin America and the Caribbean.
PM: Project delivers on promise and invests in youth, sports and national development
GRAND BAHAMA, The Bahamas — Calling it the fulfillment of a major commitment to the island, Prime Minister Philip Davis led the official groundbreaking for the Grand Bahama Aquatic Centre, a facility the government says will transform sports development and create new opportunities for young athletes.
Speaking at the Grand Bahama Sports Complex on February 12, the Prime Minister said the project represents more than bricks and mortar
— it is an investment in people, national pride and long-term economic activity. The planned complex will feature a modern 50-metre competition pool, designed to meet international standards for training and regional and global swim meets. Davis said the facility will give Bahamian swimmers a home capable of producing world-class performance while also providing a space for community recreation, learn-to-swim programmes and water safety training.
He noted that Grand Bahama has long produced outstanding athletes despite limited infrastructure and said the new centre is intended to correct that imbalance, positioning the island as a hub for aquatic sports and sports tourism.
The Prime Minister also linked the development to the broader national recovery and revitalisation of Grand Bahama, describing the project as part of a strategy to expand opportunities for young people, create jobs during construction and stimulate activity for small businesses once operational.
The Aquatic Centre, he said, stands as proof that promises made to Grand Bahama are being delivered.
The project is expected to support athlete development, attract competitions, and provide a safe, modern environment for residents to access swimming and water-based programmes for generations to come.
Angle by Deandrea Hamilton. Built with ChatGPT (AI). Magnetic Media — CAPTURING LIFE.
The Bahamas, February 15, 2026 – For the better part of three years, Bahamians have been told that major Afreximbank financing would help transform access to capital, rebuild infrastructure and unlock economic growth across the islands. The headline figures are large. The signing ceremonies are high profile. The language is ambitious. What remains far harder to see is the measurable impact in the daily lives of the people those announcements are meant to serve.
The Government’s push to secure up to $100 million from Afreximbank for roughly 200 miles of Family Island roads dates back to 2025. In
its February 11 disclosure, the bank outlined a receivables-discounting facility — a structure that allows a contractor to be paid early once work is completed, certified and invoiced, with the Government settling the bill later. It is not cash placed into the economy upfront. It does not, by itself, build a single mile of road. Every dollar depends on work first being delivered and approved.
The wider framework has been described as support for “climate-resilient and trade-enhancing infrastructure,” a phrase that, in practical terms, should mean projects that lower the cost of doing business, move people and goods faster, and keep the economy functioning. But for communities, that promise becomes real only when the projects are named, the standards are defined and a clear timeline is given for when work will begin — and when it will be finished.
Bahamians have seen this moment before.
In 2023, a $30 million Afreximbank facility for the Bahamas Development Bank was hailed as a breakthrough that would expand access to financing for local enterprise. It worked in one immediate and measurable way: it encouraged businesses to apply. Established, revenue-generating Bahamian companies responded to the call, prepared plans, and entered a process they believed had been capitalised to support growth. The unanswered question is how much of that capital has reached the private sector in a form that allowed those businesses to expand, hire and generate new economic activity.
Because development is not measured in the size of announcements.
It is measured in loans disbursed, projects completed and businesses expanded.
The pattern is becoming difficult to ignore. In June 2024, when Afreximbank held its inaugural Caribbean Annual Meetings in Nassau,
Grand Bahama was presented as the future home of an Afro-Caribbean marketplace said to carry tens of millions of dollars in investment. What was confirmed at that stage was a $1.86 million project-preparation facility — funding for studies and planning to make the development bankable, not construction financing. The larger build-out remains dependent on additional approvals, land acquisition and further capital.
This distinction — between financing announced and financing that produces visible, measurable outcomes — is now at the centre of the national conversation.
Because while the numbers grow larger on paper, entrepreneurs still describe access to capital as out of reach, and communities across the Family Islands are still waiting to see where the work will start.
And in an economy where stalled growth translates into lost opportunity, rising frustration and real social consequences, the gap between promise and delivery is no longer a communications issue.
It is an inability to convert announcements into outcomes.
Angle by Deandrea Hamilton. Built with ChatGPT (AI). Magnetic Media — CAPTURING LIFE.
A hardline strategy that reduced murders, gunfire, and collateral deaths
The Bahamas, February 8, 2026 – What happens when police stop routinely granting bail to high-risk suspects and aggressively execute outstanding warrants? In The Bahamas, the answer in 2025 was fewer murders, fewer gunshots, and safer communities.
The Royal Bahamas Police Force arrested 4,337 individuals on outstanding warrants last year, ensuring suspects were brought directly before the courts instead of being released back onto the streets. At the same time, police significantly curtailed the use of police bail for high-risk and repeat offenders, particularly those already entangled in violent disputes.
Police Commissioner Shanta Knowles said the shift was informed by hard lessons from previous years. Intelligence reviews showed that
many homicide victims were not random targets, but men already wanted by law enforcement and — critically — by other criminals. When released on bail, those individuals often became targets themselves, triggering retaliatory shootings that spilled into neighbourhoods, roadways and public spaces.
By keeping high-risk suspects in custody pending court appearances, police say they disrupted that cycle — removing both potential offenders and potential victims from the streets.
The impact was stark. Murders declined by 31 percent in 2025, falling from 120 in 2024 to 83, the largest percentage decrease in homicides since national tracking began in 1963 and the lowest murder count in nearly two decades.
Police leaders say the strategy also reduced the collateral damage that had increasingly alarmed communities. Innocent residents had been caught in “sprays of gunfire” as targeted attacks unfolded in residential areas, at traffic stops, and in public settings.
Gun-violence indicators reflected the change. Gunshot reports fell by 35 percent, while incidents detected by ShotSpotter technology declined by 29 percent, confirming that fewer shots were being fired across the country.
“Gunshots ringing out and cutting through our peaceful paradise were down remarkably,” Commissioner Knowles said, attributing the improvement to decisive enforcement, tighter bail practices, and sustained pressure on offenders.
Police also intensified enforcement against breach of bail conditions, charging and detaining more suspects than in any previous reporting period. Officers say the approach removed the opportunity for repeat offending while matters were before the courts.
Police leadership said the results go beyond statistics. By limiting bail for high-risk suspects and executing warrants at scale, the strategy saved lives, protected bystanders, and restored confidence in public safety.
In 2025, fewer people were hunted, fewer bullets were fired, and fewer families were left grieving — a shift police say was no accident, but the result of deliberate, hardline choices.
Angle by Deandrea Hamilton. Built with ChatGPT (AI). Magnetic Media — CAPTURING LIFE.
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