LAC Post COVID-19: Challenges and Opportunities for the Caribbean Countries

Abstract

nc-nd/3.0/igo/legalcode) and may be reproduced with attribution to the IDB and for any non-commercial purpose. No derivative work is allowed. Any dispute related to the use of the works of the IDB that cannot be settled amicably shall be submitted to arbitration pursuant to the UNCITRAL rules. The use of the IDB's name for any purpose other than for attribution, and the use of IDB's logo shall be subject to a separate written license agreement between the IDB and the user and is not authorized as part of this CC-IGO license. Note that link provided above includes additional terms and conditions of the license. The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Inter-American Development Bank, its Board of Directors, or the countries they represent.

Achieving Sustainable Recovery: Criteria for Evaluating the Sustainability and Effectiveness of Covid-19 Recovery Investments in Latin America and the Caribbean

“…Temporary direct cash transfers targeted to lower income workers or in the form of a bonus to COVID-19 essential workers -associated with increasing financial inclusion. Wage increases for those with government-controlled wages (public sector, minimum wage) (Abuelafia et al 2020;Anglade et al 2020;Bollers et al 2020;Bastos et al 2020;Climate Interactive 2020;CEPAL 2020b;Nuguer and Powell 2020;Blackman et al 2020;Hepburn et al 2020)…”

“…Funding to support targeted increases in public health capital, preventative measures, training health-care professionals, and associated infrastructure (hospitals, clinics, IT systems for health care) to respond to the health crisis (Abuelafia et al 2020;Anglade et al 2020;Bollers et al 2020;Bastos et al 2020;CEPAL 2020b;Nuguer and Powell 2020;Blackman et al 2020;Hepburn et al 2020;Izquierdo et al 2020)…”

“…social unrest, rapid inter-regional migration, mounting biodiversity loss, and continued vulnerability to climate change and natural disasters (Bastos et al 2020;Anglade et al 2020;Allan et al 2020;IDB Group 2019). Election cycles will add another layer of complexity with multiple presidential elections scheduled through 2024 (Bollers et al 2020).…”

“…The region's economy contracted by an estimated 7.4% in 2020, a potential increase in the percentage of the region's inhabitants living in extreme poverty to 34.5% (IMF 2021;CEPAL 2020b;Nuguer and Powell 2020;World Bank Group 2020), and job losses of between 4.4% and 14.8% (CEPAL 2020a; Altamirano Montoya, Azuara Herrera, and González 2020). Contributing factors include steep declines in tourism and remittances, especially in Central America and the Caribbean (Anglade et al 2020;Bollers et al 2020). In addition, fossil fuel exporting countries have faced steep reductions in demand and prices (Bollers et al 2020), which have increased future risk of stranded assets (Binsted et al 2019;González-Mahecha et al 2019).…”

“…Contributing factors include steep declines in tourism and remittances, especially in Central America and the Caribbean (Anglade et al 2020;Bollers et al 2020). In addition, fossil fuel exporting countries have faced steep reductions in demand and prices (Bollers et al 2020), which have increased future risk of stranded assets (Binsted et al 2019;González-Mahecha et al 2019). Food security is also a growing concern (Anglade et al 2020).…”