ST. JOHN’S, Antigua – The Director General of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), Dr. Didacus Jules, Tuesday, said no government can realistically be blamed for the increases in poverty as well as the reversal in health and nutrition “in this time of volatility and uncertainty”.
Dr. Didacus Jules (Photo courtesy of OECS)Addressing the OECS 8th Council of Ministers of Human & Social Development , Jules said “not even in the most controversial of social issues, increase levels of crime, can one realistically ascribe responsibility to sitting governments.
“Let it be clear that governments can and must be held accountable for their action or inaction, but responsibility is a shared burden,” he said.
“This is an important distinction because there are many social issues that can only be mitigated and ultimately resolved through whole of society approaches, as individuals, as families as communities the levels and spheres of responsibility that must be shouldered if our societies are to become more caring and humane.”
Jules said that the meeting provides an opportunity “to take a deeper dive” into the effects of new global issues, such as pandemics and diseases , conflicts and proxy wars, the rise of the transnational Far Right on the people of the sub-region and to establish the priorities for action.
“All of this in the face of deep fiscal transaction but exponential enlargement human need,” he said, noting that a “scan of our member states will indicate that we face a range of human and social development issues that have multi-dimensional impact that require inclusive and integrated sectoral approaches.
“To successfully address any problem one needs to understand the size and scale of the problem so that the solutions can be equal to the challenge.”
Jules said that a discussion on the major issue of poverty as well as combating youth deviant behavior, crime and gun violence, unemployment, environmental fragility, climate change, gangs, poor student performances “we are facing monsters whose danger we understand, but whose size we can only guess.
“We are clear in our understanding that poverty has increased significantly between March 2020 and today. But the only reliable statistics that we have go back to 2018 when the last poverty assessment was done of the OECS.
“Updating the precise scale of inequity and disadvantage must be a first step in addressing the problem,” he said, adding that “if there is one positive pebble buried in this mountain of woe is that our current circumstance now enables us to undertake update studies that will provide the realistic size of the problem and to do so in a context that we expect and we insist should be free of political divisiveness”.
Jules told the ceremony that there is an ancient African concept that has been lost in the sub region that allows for humanity to others.
He said the concept reminds that “I am what I am because of who we all are,” noting that too often on television “when we see reports on crime, the mothers, fathers of the victims saying he was a good boy, he was just a little troublesome.
“Nobody is taking responsibility but everybody is blaming government for the rise in crime as if governments are behind the trigger and the rise in tempers.
“There is absolutely no doubt that the levels and scale of poverty have increased since COVID-19, that hunger and food insecurity have negatively changed our nutritional status, that children are learning less just because their instructional time was shredded, but also because of the psycho-social and psychological impact of these crises on the mental health.”
Jules said that there are increased pressure on governments of small island developing states (SIDS) to take on “every social, economic and environmental issue.
“Limited resources to invest in comprehensive social safety net have further widened disparities and have further compounded the ills that countries continue to confront,” Jules said, adding that “it is in this context that we recognize the value of data in developing target interventions, better decision making in responding to human and social development needs.
“COVID-19 has amplified our focus and attention on the glaring gaps and inequities which persist. We know that many of our children have been further disadvantaged and that resulting learning losses will have long term effect on our social and economic development”.
The OECS groups the islands of Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Kitts-Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Montserrat, Anguilla and the British Virgin Islands.
“Let it be clear that governments can and must be held accountable for their action or inaction, but responsibility is a shared burden,” he said.
“This is an important distinction because there are many social issues that can only be mitigated and ultimately resolved through whole of society approaches, as individuals, as families as communities the levels and spheres of responsibility that must be shouldered if our societies are to become more caring and humane.”
Jules said that the meeting provides an opportunity “to take a deeper dive” into the effects of new global issues, such as pandemics and diseases , conflicts and proxy wars, the rise of the transnational Far Right on the people of the sub-region and to establish the priorities for action.
“All of this in the face of deep fiscal transaction but exponential enlargement human need,” he said, noting that a “scan of our member states will indicate that we face a range of human and social development issues that have multi-dimensional impact that require inclusive and integrated sectoral approaches.
“To successfully address any problem one needs to understand the size and scale of the problem so that the solutions can be equal to the challenge.”
Jules said that a discussion on the major issue of poverty as well as combating youth deviant behavior, crime and gun violence, unemployment, environmental fragility, climate change, gangs, poor student performances “we are facing monsters whose danger we understand, but whose size we can only guess.
“We are clear in our understanding that poverty has increased significantly between March 2020 and today. But the only reliable statistics that we have go back to 2018 when the last poverty assessment was done of the OECS.
“Updating the precise scale of inequity and disadvantage must be a first step in addressing the problem,” he said, adding that “if there is one positive pebble buried in this mountain of woe is that our current circumstance now enables us to undertake update studies that will provide the realistic size of the problem and to do so in a context that we expect and we insist should be free of political divisiveness”.
Jules told the ceremony that there is an ancient African concept that has been lost in the sub region that allows for humanity to others.
He said the concept reminds that “I am what I am because of who we all are,” noting that too often on television “when we see reports on crime, the mothers, fathers of the victims saying he was a good boy, he was just a little troublesome.
“Nobody is taking responsibility but everybody is blaming government for the rise in crime as if governments are behind the trigger and the rise in tempers.
“There is absolutely no doubt that the levels and scale of poverty have increased since COVID-19, that hunger and food insecurity have negatively changed our nutritional status, that children are learning less just because their instructional time was shredded, but also because of the psycho-social and psychological impact of these crises on the mental health.”
Jules said that there are increased pressure on governments of small island developing states (SIDS) to take on “every social, economic and environmental issue.
“Limited resources to invest in comprehensive social safety net have further widened disparities and have further compounded the ills that countries continue to confront,” Jules said, adding that “it is in this context that we recognize the value of data in developing target interventions, better decision making in responding to human and social development needs.
“COVID-19 has amplified our focus and attention on the glaring gaps and inequities which persist. We know that many of our children have been further disadvantaged and that resulting learning losses will have long term effect on our social and economic development”.
The OECS groups the islands of Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Kitts-Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Montserrat, Anguilla and the British Virgin Islands.
