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2015-04-07
Center for Economic and Policy Research;
This paper looks at Jamaica's ongoing relationship with the International Monetary Fund and multilateral development banks, its recent economic performance and the impact on development of a persistently high debt burden. It finds that after 20 years of negative average annual per capita GDP growth, Jamaica continues to be plagued by high debt and low growth.
Now in the third year of an IMF-backed economic program, Jamaica is running the most austere budget in the world, with a primary surplus of 7.5 percent of GDP. After two debt restructurings, both as preconditions to receiving IMF support, Jamaica still has a debt-to-GDP ratio of nearly 140 percent, and net flows from multilateral banks turned negative for two consecutive years. The paper finds that multilateral debt relief may be necessary for Jamaica to escape from its unsustainable debt burden, low-growth trap.
2013-01-01
Rockefeller Archive Center;
Since the publication of Randal Packard's White Plague, Black Labor in 1989 which examined the control of tuberculosis (TB) in South Africa, the focus of the historical scholarship on TB has gradually moved away from Europe and North America. While much work has been done in recent years on the history of TB in Latin America, the control and treatment of the disease in the British Caribbean has thus far been largely neglected. In July 2012, funded by a grant from the University of York's Centre for Chronic Diseases and Disorders, I undertook a pilot project on TB in the British Caribbean from the early twentieth century until the onset of the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the 1980s that focused on three parts of the region that differed considerably in terms of size, economy and racial make-up: Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad. I spent a week on each island, visiting their national archives and libraries and also examining papers relating to TB in the Caribbean in the National Archives and the Wellcome Library in London and in the WHO archives in Geneva.
2012-05-14
Center for Economic and Policy Research;
This paper looks at Jamaica's stalled agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), its economic performance over the past year and examines its persistently high debt burden. It finds that an unsustainable debt burden continues to displace needed investments, preventing long-term growth. The stalling of the IMF agreement has prevented disbursements of necessary multilateral financing, slowing the economy's recovery. Together with pro-cyclical macroeconomic policies supported by the IMF, the recovery of the Jamaican economy remains muted.
2012-01-01
Rockefeller Archive Center;
In his final days as the Director of the Hookworm Commission in Jamaica, Dr. P.E. Gardner wrote to his superior Hector Howard about his experience in setting up the first public health demonstration campaign on the island. He lamented, "
it has seemed to me at times that my best efforts had produced very poor results ... It was not a satisfactory piece of work to me and at the same time it was the most difficult piece of work I have ever done." Gardner was the second official from the Rockefeller Foundation's International Health (IHB) to take up work on the island since the arrival of the Rockefeller Foundation (RF) in 1918. He shared the pessimism of his predecessor Dr. M.E. Connor, who held out little hope that the efforts of IHB in Jamaica would bear any fruit.
2011-08-06
World Resources Institute (WRI);
Illustrates the ecological and economic benefits of Jamaica's coral reefs, including protecting beaches, providing habitats for fisheries, and reducing coastal flooding. Outlines steps to minimize overfishing, pollution, and global climate change effects.
2011-06-28
World Resources Institute (WRI);
Tourism, fisheries, and shoreline protection represent just three of the many culturally and economically important services reef ecosystems provide in Jamaica. The analysis showed reef-related fisheries alone contributed $34.3 million to the local economy, supported 15,000 - 20,000 fishermen, and impacted the livelihoods of more than 100,000 people island-wide. Currently, all of Jamaica's coral reefs are under threat from overfishing, bad fishing, watershed-based pollution, coastal development, marine-based pollution, climate change, and ocean acidification.
2011-05-04
Center for Economic and Policy Research;
This paper looks at Jamaica's recent history of indebtedness, its experience during the global economic downturn, and examines its current agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). It finds that Jamaica's economic and social progress has suffered considerably from the burden of an unsustainable debt; and that even after the debt restructuring of 2010, this burden remains unsustainable and very damaging. Pro-cyclical macroeconomic policies, implemented under the auspices of the IMF, have also damaged Jamaica's recent and current economic prospects.
2011-01-14
Oxfam GB;
In 2007, Hurricane Dean hit Jamaica, temporarily displacing approximately 300,000 people. On St. Lucia and Dominica, the hurricane caused widespread damage to the agricultural sector, in particular banana crops but also to vegetable crops and animal pens. In Jamaica, Oxfam's main objective was to contribute to the prevention of a major disease outbreak among women, men and children in areas most affected by the hurricane. In St. Lucia and Dominica the main objective was to contribute to the recovery of livelihoods of farmers whose food security and livelihoods were severely affected by the hurricane. This evaluation, carried out after the six-month programmes closed, looks at the following areas: reviewing the project design and implementation; identifying and documenting innovative and good practices; and identifying persistent weaknesses (particularly in internal systems) for organisational learning.
2010-01-01
Rockefeller Archive Center;
The Rockefeller Foundation's International Health Board (IHB) first arrived in Jamaica in 1918 as part of an expansion of its work on hookworm in the American South, the British Caribbean and Central America. Using the methods perfected in British Guiana, Trinidad and Costa Rica of survey, education and mass treatment, known as the "American" or "Intensive Method", the Rockefeller Foundation (RF) was able to gain the support of both the colonial and local governments in Jamaica. It soon expanded its work into many other fields of public health and education. By 1928 International Health Division, under the direction of Dr. Benjamin Washburn, had created the Hookworm and Malaria Commissions, established a training school for sanitary inspectors, organized local health boards in each parish with trained medical personnel and instituted programs of nutrition and dental care in local schools. In addition the Bureau of Health Education, under the direction of Washburn, published the popular Public Health Bulletin to spread the message of sanitation to the masses.
2006-01-01
CABI Publishing;
For many years, Canada's International Development Research Centre (IDRC) has maintained an active portfolio of projects examining co-management and community-based management in fisheries and other resource systems. Since the publication of Managing Small-scale Fisheries (Berkes et al., 2001), there has been an increasing demand for guidance on what IDRC has learned about co-management, particularly across different geographical settings, socio-economic conditions, and histories of operation; and how it could apply to other types of fishing, link to other livelihoods, relate to other dynamic processes (such as the migration of fishermen), and respond to the seasonal nature of fish resources. This book attempts to respond to this demand by compiling recent experience from as wide a cross section of research as possible. During the development of this book, both IDRC and the authors wrestled with the concept of co-management. Given the evolving nature of this science, for example, what does co-management cover and how widely is the concept accepted? Importantly, there has been increasing acceptance of the idea that co-management is not an end point but rather a process -- a process of adaptive learning. Recognizing the diversity of both local contexts (ecological and social) and factors depleting the fishery (such as overfishing and habitat destruction), however, would it even be possible to put together a book of lessons learned? As you will soon discover, IDRC and the authors felt that it was neither possible nor desirable to produce a blueprint for fishery co-management. Rather, we agreed that it would be more useful to document the co-management process, as undertaken by both IDRC partners and others, and to put this experience into a form that could be shared with anyone interested in learning more about co-management and what others have learned. This shared and adaptive approach to learning is what this book is all about. In the pages that follow, you will find a complete picture of the co-management process: strengths, weaknesses, methods, activities, checklists and so on.
2005-07-28
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO);
One part of the two-part Science-to-Action Guidebook. The other part was intended for scientists, and this part is for decision-makers. Recognizing the importance of informed decisions and the differences between the scientific and decision-making processes, this guidebook provides practical tips on how to best bring these worlds together. In doing so, this guidebook emphasizes the roles of facilitating, synthesizing, translating, and communicating science to inform conservation action. It is geared toward the perspective of decision-makers working in tropical developing nations and focusing on marine resource management issues. However, the concepts are applicable to a broad range of scientists and decision-makers worldwide.
2004-12-01
International Studies Program of the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies;
The GCT and SCT are critically important revenue sources in Jamaica, accounting for 37.4 percent of total revenues in fiscal year 2003/04 (27.7 percent for GCT alone) and an estimated 11.2 percent of GDP (8.3 percent for GCT alone). In this paper we set out in some detail the present structure and administration of the GCT and SCT and evaluate the performance of these taxes from several angles -- as revenue generators, with respect to their distributional effects, and in an international comparison. We end with recommendations for reform. Working Paper Number 04-32.
