Golding petitions debt forgiveness for small islands, developing states
Published:Thursday | December 9, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Sheena Gayle, Gleaner Writer
Western Bureau:
Developed countries must be open to debt forgiveness for smaller states which are finding it difficult to channel resources into reducing risks associated with natural disasters, Prime Minister Bruce Golding said.
"Debt forgiveness has to be kept on the table for those countries whose circumstances do not allow them to repay. They will never be able to repay," Golding said at the official opening ceremony of the fifth annual Caribbean Conference on Comprehensive Disaster Management (CDM) at the Rose Hall Resort and Spa, Montego Bay, Tuesday night.
According to Golding, "If they (developing countries) are to be brought to the point where they can begin to focus on some of these issues related to sustainable development, then that is the kind of space (debt forgiveness) they have to be given."
Disaster effect
He told the conference that the impact of disasters on small islands and developing countries must never be underestimated. He pointed to the case of Grenada which, he said, spent several years to build its economy to the point where it had sustained economic growth on an annual basis, but had it all erased when Hurricane Ivan hit the island in 2004.
The fifth Comprehensive Disaster Management conference examines the implication for disaster risk-reduction practices in the context of recent disaster experiences within and outside the Caribbean region.
Golding used the opportunity to make an appeal to the developed countries to carve out an agree-ment with small islands and developing countries to help them to be better able to protect them-selves from disasters that are largely caused by the indus-trialised states.
Meanwhile, the executive director of the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency, Jeremy Collymore, has called for the establishment of a risk ombudsman or commissioner for Caribbean countries.
Risk register
That person, he said, should have the responsibility to create a national risk register and report on policies and programmes that contribute to the vulnerability of Caribbean country.
The conference, themed 'CDM: Strengthening Partnerships for Resilience', facilitates resilience building and a multi-sectoral approach by bringing together disaster-management practi-tioners from the Caribbean, North, South and Central America, Africa and the Pacific, as well as partners in the multiple donor organisations.
The CDM conference ends tomorrow.