At the recently concluded United Nations (UN) Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) meeting on measuring development in Santiago, Chile from 27th-28th January, held ahead of the Fourth UN Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) in June/July in Seville, Spain, the British Virgin Islands Special Envoy/Vice Chair of UN ECLAC Mr. Benito Wheatley stressed the critical importance of factoring in the vulnerability and climate resilience of the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) of Latin America and the Caribbean as a region into any reforms of the existing financing for development architecture which currently bases countries’ and territories’ level of development, their access to Official Development Assistance (ODA), and their graduation from ODA, primarily on GDP per capita income.
Mr. Wheatley lamented the unfair treatment of Caribbean SIDS and other developing countries in Latin America and the Caribbean who lack access to development assistance they need for sustainable development because they are either categorised as Middle- and High-Income or are Low-Income and slated to be graduated from development assistance in the very near future.
He expressed the British Virgin Islands’ full support for a multidimensional development measure to assess countries level of development and needs which would go beyond GDP per capita as the primary indicator. He also stated that Latin America and the Caribbean hold a common position that no country or territory should be left behind, regardless of income category.
In his contribution on a new metric for development, the Special Envoy emphasised the importance of vulnerability and climate resilience to SIDS as indicators of both their ability to withstand hurricanes and other extreme weather events, to recover quickly, and to maintain their level of development.
Mr. Wheatley also highlighted the dilemma of the Associate Members of ECLAC who are not included in the internationally agreed Multi-Dimensional Vulnerability Index (MVI), despite islands such as the British Virgin Islands being struck by two category five hurricanes in 2017 which caused catastrophic damage of $2.3 billion and wiped out the tourism sector that drives employment. The territory’s Government did not qualify for concessional financing to rebuild and has financed recovery with commercial loans at rates just below seven percent.
In the margins of the meeting, Mr. Wheatley also exchanged with the FfD4 host country representative Hon. Sergio Colina, Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation of Spain, on the importance of the Antigua and Barbuda Agenda for SIDS (ABAS) to the ongoing international discussions on the next financing for development period.