PORT OF SPAIN, CMC – Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister, Kamla Persad Bissessar, says w. On the identical time, there was progress throughout Latin America and the Caribbean(LAC) as regards to human growth, “the sample is evident, now we have made progress, however it stays fragile”.
Addressing the launch of the United Nations Growth Programme (UNDP) Regional Human Growth Report 2025 right here on Thursday evening, Persad Bissessar said that, in only one era, poverty has been halved.
“But right now, one in 4 folks nonetheless stay in poverty, and one other third stay so near the sting {that a} single shock may push them again down. The Human Growth Index, which as soon as rose steadily yr after yr, slowed sharply after the mid-2010s.
“Then got here COVID-19, which triggered the primary decline within the Index in our historical past. Restoration since then has been uneven and unsure,” she mentioned, including “right now, our area faces uncertainty ranges which are 50 per cent greater than the worldwide common.
“And the reality is, crises now not come one by one. That’s what this report rightly calls a polycrisis. The conclusion is simple: enterprise as normal is now not an possibility,” Persad Bissessar advised her viewers that included Michelle Muschett, the United Nations Assistant Secretary-Normal and Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, Ugo Blanco, UNDP Resident Consultant for Trinidad and Tobago, Aruba, Curaçao, and St Maarten in addition to varied Caribbean and worldwide diplomats and members of her authorities.
The most recent UNDP Regional Human Growth Report 2025, titled “Underneath Strain: Recalibrating the Way forward for Growth in Latin America and the Caribbean”, argues that in a context of uncertainty and interconnected crises, shifting ahead requires a shift in technique: resilience should be positioned on the heart of the talk.
The UNDP notes that patterns of growth progress in LAC over the previous couple of a long time may be summarized in 4 easy tenets: important progress has occurred; progress has been unequal; it has slowed lately; and it’s weak to reversals.
Prime Minister Persad Bissessar mentioned within the Caribbean, “We stay these contradictions each day,” and that development is recorded in stories, but inequality endures in households.
She mentioned the report highlights three important stressors urgent upon the LAC: technological disruption, social fragmentation, and the local weather emergency.
“From these mounting pressures, we should chart a brand new path, one in every of resilient human growth. A mannequin the place progress shouldn’t be fragile, the place a single disaster can’t erase a long time of laborious work, and the place each achieve is protected and shared.
“This imaginative and prescient requires motion we are able to all perceive, akin to defending small states via debt-for-climate swaps and catastrophe-linked financing, constructing regional worth chains in meals, well being, artistic industries, and renewable vitality so our economies develop collectively, and increasing Caribbean danger swimming pools and early-warning techniques to defend our communities from pure disasters earlier than they strike.”
Persad Bissessar mentioned that confronting cross-border crime with stronger intelligence-sharing, coordinated maritime safety, and restoration methods that rebuild belief in communities most affected are additionally wanted, including, “On this manner, resilience stops being a slogan and turns into a safeguard for our folks, our area, and our future.”
She mentioned the worldwide challenges outlined within the report have their very own “Trinbagonian face” and “but at the same time as Trinidad and Tobago confronts these pressures, it should additionally recognise the immense potential earlier than it.
She mentioned digital transformation, synthetic intelligence, and new applied sciences are usually not merely instruments; they’re accelerators of human growth, and when harnessed responsibly, they will increase entry to training, enhance public companies, and create new pathways of alternative.
“But when we fail to behave, they will additionally deepen divides. Our nationwide technique should enshrine digital entry, AI governance, and innovation ecosystems that empower each citizen.”
Prime Minister Persad Bissessar mentioned that Trinidad and Tobago is proud to host the Caribbean launch of the report, stating, “It’s not solely a proper occasion, it’s a reaffirmation of our unwavering dedication to sustainable, inclusive, people-centred growth.”
She said that her authorities is dedicated to establishing mechanisms that allow the nation to navigate uncertainty with readability and function.
“We are going to assemble establishments that embrace complexity and reply with agility. We are going to put money into infrastructure that empowers communities in Trinidad and in Tobago. We are going to create an atmosphere the place each citizen, in each neighborhood, feels seen, heard, and served.
“These are usually not summary coverage targets. They’re the foundations of a affluent future for Trinidad and Tobago. Of sustainable growth for our Caribbean area,” she mentioned, including that they’re mirrored within the Regional Human Growth Report 2025.
She mentioned that the UNDP report ought to be seen as being greater than numbers.
“They’re a compass, reminding us that true progress is measured not in GDP (gross home product) alone, however within the high quality of our lecture rooms, the energy of our healthcare, the equity of our justice, and the dignity of our folks”.
She notes that as regards to Trinidad and Tobago, the report locations the oil-rich twin island republic “among the many very excessive human growth nations,” which she mentioned was earned “via sacrifice, funding, and resilience.
“However it’s slipping, and it is a warning. We can’t relaxation. We should act with urgency, with imaginative and prescient, and with resolve,” she mentioned, noting that the contents of the report should carry all stakeholders worldwide “to behave with braveness, creativeness, and religion.
“Collectively, allow us to flip danger into resilience, strain into progress, and uncertainty into alternative, for Trinidad and Tobago, for the Caribbean, and for all humanity,” she advised the viewers on the launch.
