June 13, 2025
The COVID-19 fallout left a lasting impact on the Caribbean. The UNDP is suggesting that the developmental gains we had over the last few decades was rolled back by the force of the COVID-19 pandemic.
We don’t believe that the developmental gains were rolled back, but the initial gains the large alphabet agencies were recording for the Caribbean were grossly overstated.
For example, the region, by and large, just got their minds around the imperfect measure for wealth in that of GDP per capita. This measurement is skewed towards the highest earners in an economy and that within itself is a problem. So while it could be assumed that a country like The Bahamas is not in the developing country status to get preferential loan rates from the World Bank because of its high GDP per capita, the fact of the matter is is that over 70 percent of the working population makes under $40k a year and perhaps 80% of that 70 percent makes under $30k per year.
So it was not the COVID-19 that set the region back, but it is the region and the longstanding mischaracterizations of development that has come full surface at a time when we can’t lie to or on anyone else anymore.