7 p., The 2008-09 balance of payments crisis and a succession of errors in economic policies have resulted in new monetary and financial complications in the Cuban economy, to be added to the costs and distortions of currency duality.
Newly arrived from Cuba, Angelica, Dora, Marina, and Damaris attempted to negotiate new surroundings and immigrant identities, building a sense of home for themselves and their families. Data from qualitative interviews, classroom observations, and focus group conversations revealed hopes that by acquiring English language skills, they would improve their quality of life in their new country. Struggles included personal factors situated in their pasts in Cuba and their new surrounds in the Miami Cuban exile enclave, contexts that were further complicated by uncertain expectations of new lives in Miami and the overwhelming task of learning a new language at a local adult education center.
After Soviet aid and trade ended Cuba was forced to reintegrate into the capitalist world economy. Needing hard currency, the government transformed the diaspora into a dollar attaining strategy, by facilitating and tacitly encouraging remittance-sending. Ordinary Cubans themselves wanted remittances to finance a lifestyle they could not otherwise afford. Despite their shared interest in remittances, the government increasingly appropriated remittances at recipients' expense.
Reforms proposed at the Sixth Communist Party Congress represent a new, third phase of social policy in post-revolutionary Cuba. This new stage has the potential to strengthen social equity in Cuba, improve the socio-economic situation of disparate social groups, and overcome the old limitations of social policy. Yet it could also increase inequality, and at least in the short term, its predicted impacts will be contradictory and ambivalent.
To many in the West, the League of Nations was to establish political peace between nations. To the Cuban sugar-producing elite of the 1920s and 1930s, however, the League was an important socioeconomic institution used to augment many of Cuba's first modern state institutions. This article explores how and why Cuban delegates were the principals behind the 1937 International Sugar Agreement.
53 p., Since 1996, Congress has appropriated 205 million dollars to the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Department of State (State) to support democracy assistance for Cuba. Because of Cuban government restrictions, conditions in Cuba pose security risks to the implementing partners -- primarily nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) -- and subpartners that provide US assistance. GAO (1) identified current assistance, implementing partners, subpartners, and beneficiaries; (2) reviewed USAID's and State's efforts to implement the program in accordance with US laws and regulations and to address program risks; and (3) examined USAID's and State's monitoring of the use of program funds. Tables, Figures, Appendixes.
Lopez-Levy,Arturo (Author) and Lopez,Lilla R. (Author)
Format:
Book, Whole
Publication Date:
2011
Published:
Washington, DC: New American Foundation
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
19 p., Explores the historic reform process currently underway in Cuba. It looks first at the political context in which the VI Cuban Communist Party Congress took place, including the Cuban government's decision to release a significant number of political prisoners as part of a new dialogue with the Cuban Catholic Church. It then analyzes Cuba's nascent processes of economic reform and political liberalization. To conclude, it discusses the challenges and opportunities these processes pose for U.S policy toward Cuba.
38 p., Analyzes total factor productivity growth in agriculture in Latin America and the Caribbean between 1961 and 2007. The results show that among developing regions, Latin America and the Caribbean shows the highest agricultural productivity growth. The highest growth within the region has occurred in the last two decades, especially due to improvements in efficiency and the introduction of new technologies. Within the region, land-abundant countries consistently outperform land-constrained countries.
With stark income inequalities rooted in its dual currency economy, Cuba is taxing down high and unearned incomes, while trying to raise national productivity and official salaries through performance-related pay and labor restructuring. Such measures are portrayed as an abandonment of socialism, but in Cuba are discussed in terms of historic socialist debates about distribution and the balance of moral and material incentives at work, in a society still characterized by common ownership, social protection, and collective debate.
A range of economic dimensions is examined, including trade in goods and services (notably tourism), direct foreign investment, international migration, and development assistance. Following a brief review of the evolving relationship from 1959 to 1990, the nature of the economic relationship between Canada and Cuba is analyzed in more detail for the 1990 to 2009 era.
Romeu,Rafael (Author), Perez-Lopez,Jorge F. (Author), Mesa-Lago,Carmelo (Author), and Perales,Jose Raul (Editor)
Format:
Book, Whole
Publication Date:
July 2011
Published:
Washington, DC: Latin American Program, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
91 p., This publication examines the contemporary state of Cuba's economy at a time of great transformation. Using econometric and other macroeconomic analysis tools, its authors have taken advantage of the recent availability of official economic statistics to offer new insights into longstanding questions about Cuba's economic behavior. Tables, Figures, References.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
230 p., For almost five decades, the United States has maintained a comprehensive economic embargo on Cuba. U.S.-based travel to the island is severely restricted, and most financial and commercial transactions with Cuba are illegal for U.S. citizens. In the 1990s the United States tightened the embargo further, seeking to promote change in Cuba by depriving the Castro government of hard currency revenues. And yet the stalemate remains. This book argues that the embargo has not been particularly effective in achieving its primary goal. The United States has not only been unable to stifle the flow of foreign investment into Cuba but has actually contributed to the recovery of the Cuban economy, particularly from the deep recession it entered following the demise of the Soviet Union.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
1134 p, This volume contains a collection of statistics, surveys and essays on the region and includes contributions from acknowledged authorities who examine topics of regional importance. It includes individual chapters on each country and territory.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
1 vol., This volume contains a collection of statistics, surveys and essays on the region and includes contributions from acknowledged authorities who examine topics of regional importance. It includes individual chapters on each country and territory.
Argues that the emergence of hip hop in the South Bronx can be explained by the way in which several social-political factors dictated by the needs of the world economy converged with the resistance and labor of black people in the United States and the Anglo-Caribbean in the late 1960s and early 1970
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
309 p, Using the stories of ordinary people, Block illustrates how engaging with the powerful rhetoric and rituals of Christianity was central to survival. Isobel Criolla was a runaway slave in Cartagena who successfully lobbied the Spanish governor not to return her to an abusive mistress. Nicolas Burundel was a French Calvinist who served as henchman to the Spanish governor of Jamaica before his arrest by the Inquisition for heresy. Henry Whistler was an English sailor sent to the Caribbean under Oliver Cromwell's plan for holy war against Catholic Spain. Yaff and Nell were slaves who served a Quaker plantation owner, Lewis Morris, in Barbados. Seen from their on-the-ground perspective, the development of modern capitalism, race, and Christianity emerges as a story of negotiation, contingency, humanity, and the quest for community.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
194 p, Chronicles how the unprecedented demand for sugar radically transformed Western civilization at every level of society. The book details how technologies of human control developed in the African slave trade combined with missionary Christian theology to lay the foundations for the language, literature and cultural dictates of race we know today.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
710 p, Examines the economic history of the Caribbean in the two hundred years since the Napoleonic Wars and is the first analysis to span the whole region. Its findings challenge many long-standing assumptions about the region, and its in-depth case studies shed new light on the history of three countries in particular, namely Belize, Cuba, and Haiti"
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
206 p, Focuses primarily on those territories in the Caribbean and Pacific which retain these "colonial" ties. The issues affecting them such as constitutional reform, the maintenance of good governance, economic development, and the risks of economic vulnerability are important concerns for all territories both independent and non-independent. However, the ways in which these issues are addressed are somewhat different in small sub-national jurisdictions because of the particular regimes in place and the tensions inherent between the territories and their respective metropoles.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
158 p, The book is divided into two sections. The first offers a political and historical overview, starting with the British presence in the region and the introduction of slavery and indentured labor, and continuing with the rise of nationalist movements, political leaders’ vision for their respective states, and economic development. The second section explores the region as an entity, including development at state and national levels, the historical background for regional unity from the West Indian Federation to CARICOM, and an evaluation on how well regionalism works today and could work in the future.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
85 p., Contends that Caribbean migrants are adopting the foreign culture, sports, food, clothes and behavior at a rapid pace while at the same time losing knowledge of the native environment. Many of the "recent migrants" who are seen on the streets in Brooklyn or elsewhere or in the schools are hardly distinguishable from inner city African Americans suggesting that dominant society influence coupled with the desire to fit in pervade the entire raison d'etre even before the immigrants arrive.
Izquierdo,Alejandro (Author) and Talvi,Ernesto (Author)
Format:
Book, Whole
Publication Date:
2011
Published:
Washington, DC: Inter-American Development Bank
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
57 p., Conveys three key messages: first, in this new global economic environment, key structural characteristics of Latin American and Caribbean countries are defining two quite different regional clusters in terms of opportunities and challenges ahead. Second, substantial changes in trade and capital flow patterns, as well as in the international financial architecture, are already taking place and will impact the regional clusters in different ways. Third, economic policy design will have to accommodate these differences in order to ensure widespread and stable growth.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
279 p., Offering a rare pan-Caribbean perspective on a region that has moved from the very center of the western world to its periphery, The Caribbean: The Genesis of a Fragmented Nationalism journeys through five centuries of economic and social development, emphasizing such topics as the slave-run plantation economy, the changes in political control over the centuries, the impact of the United States, and the effects of Castro's Cuban revolution on the area.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
279 p, Offering a rare pan-Caribbean perspective on a region that has moved from the very center of the western world to its periphery, The Caribbean: The Genesis of a Fragmented Nationalism journeys through five centuries of economic and social development, emphasizing such topics as the slave-run plantation economy, the changes in political control over the centuries, the impact of the United States, and the effects of Castro's Cuban revolution on the area.
Moreno,Luis Alberto (Author) and Inter-American Development Bank (Author)
Format:
Book, Whole
Publication Date:
2011
Published:
Washington, DC: Inter-American Development Bank
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
153 p., Looks at economic and social development trends in Latin America and the Caribbean and the region's challenges for the future. The book's author, Luis Alberto Moreno, president of the Inter-American Development Bank, highlights the region's strengths as a result of a favorable external environment and its social gains and institutional reforms.
Palmer,Steven Paul (Editor) and Molina Jiménez,Iván (Editor)
Format:
Book, Edited
Publication Date:
2009
Published:
Durham, NC: Duke University Press
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
383 p., Includes more than fifty texts related to the country's history, culture, politics, and natural environment. Most of these newspaper accounts, histories, petitions, memoirs, poems, and essays are written by Costa Ricans. Includes Jose Cubero's "A slave's story"; Cabildo of Cartago's "Free blacks, mulattoes, and mestizos seek legitimacy"; and Clodomiro Picado's "Our blood is blackening."
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
446 p., The sugar revolution made the English, in particular, a nation of voracious consumers. The wealth of her island colonies became the foundation and focus of England's commercial and imperial greatness, underpinning the British economy and ultimately fueling the Industrial Revolution. Yet with the incredible wealth came untold misery: the horror endured by slaves, on whose backs the sugar empire was brutally built; the rampant disease that claimed the lives of one-third of all whites within three years of arrival in the Caribbean; the cruelty, corruption, and decadence of the plantation culture.
Powell,Andrew (Author) and Inter-American Development Bank (Author)
Format:
Book, Whole
Publication Date:
2012
Published:
Washington, DC: Inter-American Development Bank
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
93 p., "To capture how alternative paths for the main participants in the world economy impact Latin America and the Caribbean, this report describes the maze of connections between the Region and the rest of the world, and provides an analysis of the most relevant topics within this labyrinth of connections. Our aim is to consider how Latin America and the Caribbean may fare under different paths taken by the world economy. On the whole, we are optimistic about the Region's prospects. And while we hope for the best, the Region should plan for the worst. In the pages that follow, the Region's resilience and potential reaction to possible shocks is assessed; on this basis, recommendations are proposed." --The Author
Rivera Ortiz,Angel Israel (Editor) and Ramos,Aarón Gamaliel (Editor)
Format:
Book, Edited
Publication Date:
2001
Published:
Kingston, Jamaica: Ian Randle Publishers
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
190 p, This group of essays addresses issues affecting the colonial territories of the Caribbean that have arisen from recent changes in their administration, international globalization, the end of the Cold War, urban economic success, and the consolidation of neoconservative ideology in Europe and North America that questions the terms of colonial arrangements. Individual papers discuss these issues in the French Antilles, Curacao, Aruba, and Puerto Rico, as well as the region as a whole.
Siegel,Peter E. (Author) and Righter, Elizabeth (Author)
Format:
Book, Whole
Publication Date:
2011
Published:
Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
202 p., Practitioners of heritage management on the frontline of their own islands address the current state of affairs across the Caribbean to present a comprehensive overview of Caribbean heritage preservation challenges.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
353 p., Interspersing colonial history with her family's experience, Stuart explores the interconnected themes of settlement, sugar and slavery. In examining how these forces shaped her own family--its genealogy, intimate relationships, circumstances of birth, varying hues of skin--she illuminates how her family, among millions of others like it, in turn transformed the society in which they lived, and how that interchange continues to this day.
United Nations. Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (Author)
Format:
Annual Periodical
Publication Date:
2011
Published:
Santiago, Chile: United Nations Pub.
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
130 p., This edition discusses the crisis generated in the developed world and the recovery driven by the emerging economies. Topics such as analysis of the post-crisis international economic situation concentrating on its implications for international trade prospects in Latin America and the Caribbean and examining the recovery of the global economy, which has centered mainly on the Asian economies (especially China) and other emerging economies, together with the role played by international trade in this recovery both globally and regionally and the heterogeneity of trade performance between different regions of the world.
United Nations. Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (Author)
Format:
Annual Periodical
Publication Date:
2012
Published:
Santiago, Chile: United Nations, ECLAC
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
76 p., Designed to meet the need for up-to-date analysis of the region's macroeconomic performance amid shifting conditions. The complements the Economic Survey of Latin America and the Caribbean and the Preliminary Overview of the Economies of Latin America and the Caribbean, which ECLAC will continue to publish yearly along with other regular macroeconomic reports. With this publication, ECLAC aims to make the results of its integrated informative and analytical approach available to public institutions, the media, academia, private analysts and the broader public, covering salient aspects of current conditions as well as structural traits of the region's macroeconomic development.
United Nations. Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (Author)
Format:
Book, Whole
Publication Date:
2011
Published:
ECLAC, United Nations
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
123 p., The factors behind a more positive performance include the continued dynamism of some key Asian economies, whose sustained demand for products from this region has created important conditions for a recovery in exports. Similarly, the recovery of the U.S. economy, though gradual, contributes to a better scenario for Mexico, Central America and, to the extent that raises the demand for tourism, possibly also for the Caribbean. For the latter, some recovery is projected in remittances from that country by migrant workers in the region.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
300 p., A dynamic convergence of politics, economics and religion, transformed the development trajectories of Europe, the Caribbean, and ultimately the world. Mercantilist trade practices established regional dependence on the metropolitan cores of Western Europe, positioning the Caribbean for chronic vulnerability to transformations associated with the evolution of capitalism in the broader world economy. Perpetuated through restrictive trade and economic policies, manifestations of this dependence and vulnerability have endured in the modern Commonwealth Caribbean despite the achievement of independence for most of the former colonies, and autonomous internal self-governance for the rest.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
Workshop on Demographic Change and Social Policy in Latin America ; (2009 : Washington, D.C.)., 286 p, Latin America and the Caribbean will soon face the challenges of an aging population. This process, which took over a century in the rich world, will occur in two or three decades in the developing world; seven of the 25 countries that will age more rapidly are in LAC. Population aging will pose challenges and offer opportunities.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
286 p., Explores three sets of issues. First covers questions of work and retirement, income and wealth, and living arrangements and intergenerational transfers. It also explores the relation between the life cycle and poverty. Second is the question of the health transition. How does the demographic transition impact the health status of the population and the demand for health care? And how advanced is the health transition in LAC? Third is an understanding of the fiscal pressures that are likely to accompany population aging and to disentangle the role of demography from the role of policy in that process.
Hall,Kenneth O. (Author) and Chuck-A-Sang,Myrtle (Author)
Format:
Book, Whole
Publication Date:
2011
Published:
Georgetown, Guyana: Commonwealth Secretariat
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
503 p, pt. 1. Globalization and CARICOM external policy options -- pt. 2. South-South cooperation -- pt. 3. External trade negotiations: concerns and convergence -- pt. 4. Caribbean imperatives and concluding reflections.
Hauser,Mark W. (Author) and Florida museum of natural history (Author)
Format:
Book, Whole
Publication Date:
2008
Published:
Gainesville: University Press of Florida
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
269 p., In 18th-century Jamaica, an informal, underground economy existed among enslaved laborers. Utilizes both documentary and archaeological evidence to reveal how slaves practiced their own systematic forms of economic production, exchange, and consumption. Hauser compares the findings from a number of previously excavated sites and presents new analyses that reinterpret these collections in the context of island-wide trading networks
Molinas Vega, Jose R. (Author), Barros, Ricardo Paes de (Author), Saavedra Chanduvi, Jaime (Author), Giugale, Marcelo (Author), Cord, Louise J. (Author), Pessino, Carola (Author), and Hasan, Amer (Author)
Format:
Book, Whole
Publication Date:
2012
Published:
Washington,DC: World Bank
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
154 p, This book assesses the status and evolution of human opportunity in Latin America and Caribbean (LAC). It builds on the 2008 publication, "Measuring Inequality of Opportunity," in several directions. First, it uses newly-available data to expand the set of opportunities and personal circumstances under analysis. The data is representative of some 200 million children living in 19 countries over the last 15 years. Second, it compares human opportunity in LAC with that of developed countries, among them the U.S. and France, two very different models of social policy.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
154 p., Assesses the status and evolution of human opportunity in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). It uses data representative of some 200 million children living in 19 countries over the last 15 years. Compares human opportunity in LAC with that of developed countries, among them the U.S. and France, two very different models of social policy.
United Nations Development Programme. Evaluation Office. (Author)
Format:
Book, Whole
Publication Date:
2013
Published:
New York: United Nations Development Programme, Evaluation Office
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
132 p., This evaluation covered the Regional Programme for Latin America and the Caribbean 2008-2013, implemented by the UNDP Regional Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean, through its Panama Regional Service Centre. It examined the contributions made to development results through the implementation of regional projects, activities and the complementary technical support services provided to country offices and other national or regional partners.
N'COBRA insists that the Haitian People be the ones to be entrusted - as an honest, hardworking and brilliant nation that they are - in the whole of the recovery and rebuilding effort in Haiti. No sovereign nation can depend on another for such an effort. While it is true that desperately needed aid to Haiti from all corners of the world is always to be appreciated, we firmly believe that it is up to the People and only the People of Haiti to direct and implement this effort as a resourceful nation to whom Re-parations have been long overdue due based on the past history. Contact: Fanuel Seku - 786 539 8239 Ayiti Tamn Tamn/VeyeYo, K.X.A. Rashid - 786 402 5286 N'COBRA National Representative, Sababu K. Shabaka - 443 622 3440 N'COBRA InternationalFatima Mevs - (786) 768 8812 N9COBRA International/ Miami-Dade Green Party.
Haiti is a third world country with a population of over seven million and another few million scattered over the world. It represents per capita the poorest Western Hemisphere country but in reality it has been downtrodden by political instability and the insolvency of the Dictatorship stereotype. This dictatorship mentality has taken root with Duvalier regime (Papa Doc and Baby Doc) which for many years had an iron grip over this French-Creole island and resulted in the destruction of a truly unique island. Each leader since, Jean Claude Duvalier has monopolized and downtrodden the Haitian community for his own selfish reasons. The dictatorship tactics of Duvalier was emulated by each leader who succeeded him and the military in this place took the place of 'Baby Doc's' dreaded "Ton Ton Man Coute" death squads.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
207 p., Includes S. Reid's "An Introductory Approach to the Concentration of Power in the Jamaican Corporate Economy and Notes on its Origin." (chapter: pp. 15-44); D. Robotham's "Agrarian Relations in Jamaica." (chapter: pp. 45-57); and Ralph Gonsalves' "The Trade Union Movement in Jamaica: Its Growth and Resultant Problems." (chapter: pp. 89-105).
The underlying thesis of this paper is that contemporary Caribbean economy and society
maintain certain basic structural features rooted in slavery and the plantation system.
It traces changes that have occurred in the economic, demographic, educational, social
structural, and political realms, particularly during the 1960s. The picture that emerges is one of "change and continuity."
In recent weeks and months, Jamaica's Prime Minister, Portia Simpson Miller, Guyana's new President, Donald Ramotar, Grenada's head of government Tillman Thomas, and a few days ago, Mia Mottley, a former Deputy Prime Minister of Barbados came to New York at the helm of a six member delegation of the Barbados Labor Party to meet the Diaspora. What they all did was deliver an interesting message: nationals of their respective countries must continue to play an invaluable role in the further economic and social development of America's third border. What a pity, then, that Caribbean states haven't done more to integrate their respective Diasporas into national development back home, much like Israel, Ireland and to lesser extent some African states.
It may also have helped English-speaking migrants from the Caribbean that Florida served as a broad entry point for Caribbean migrants from Cuba, Haiti, and other countries: Where an area has a strong tradition of immigration, prevailing social attitudes are not likely to be as parochial as those in traditionally closed communities. Again, this is not to minimize the difficulties that particular migrants have faced; it is to acknowledge the fairly obvious point that some communities are less impenetrable for outsiders than others. A recent study by the British Cabinet Office has found that Caribbean women constitute a significant success story at the professional level. Specifically, for the generation born between 1940 and 1959, as many as 45 percent of the black women from the Caribbean, or who are of Caribbean heritage, now hold professional or managerial jobs, as against 27.3 percent of the black men in the same category. For the generation born between 1960 and 1979, 38.1 percent of the black women with Caribbean roots are professionals or managers, in comparison with 28.6 percent of the black men. These figures warn us that gender is now a significant factor in determining the prospects of Caribbean migrants to Britain, and they highlight the need for a broader examination of the factors that determine success for those who, in Claude McKay's words, may find themselves "a long way from home."
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
The Institute for Ibero-American Studies aims to observe and scientifically analyze political, economic, and social development processes in the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. Academically and legally independent research establishment connected with the German Overseas Institute (Deutsches Übersee-Institut, DÜI), which is funded by the German federal government and the city-state of Hamburg. Links to online newspapers and magazines in Latin America (annotations in German), to institutes researching Latin America, and to other resources; projects descriptions, newsletter, and several papers online.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
The Canadian Foundation for the Americas (FOCAL) is an independent, non-partisan think-tank dedicated to strengthening Canadian relations with Latin America and the Caribbean through policy dialogue and analysis. It seeks to create new partnerships and policy options throughout the Western Hemisphere through its promotion of good governance, economic prosperity and social justice.
This article elaborates on some important concepts in the matter of abortion, the issue of revelant legislation, and ends with pertinent recommendations. Adopting a bioethical perspective, the paper addresses the relevant issues and perspectives on abortion and argues for clarity of concepts and understanding of the context in which a woman is pregnant and considers abortion.
Looks at Barbados's experience of abortion law reform undertaken in the 1980s. The movement was led by then Cabinet Minister and lawyer Billie Miller. Documents the nuances, important moments, key strategies and major players in the reform movement, and highlights the critical role that Miller played in getting the Medical Termination Act passed in 1983. Background information on the situation of Barbadian women and the nature of parliamentary governance at that time is also addressed in order to give context to the politics surrounding the issue.
Examines the extent to which publicly-listed Caribbean companies provide social and environmental disclosures, and the factors related to their disclosure practices. It is motivated by the dearth of studies of social and environmental disclosures among publicly listed Caribbean firms.
Burger,John (Author), Rebucci,Alessandro (Author), Warnock,Francis E. (Author), and Warnock,Veronica (Author)
Format:
Pamphlet
Publication Date:
May 2010
Published:
Washington, DC: Inter-American Development Bank
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
39 p., This paper assesses the extent to which a country's external capital structure can aid in mitigating the macroeconomic impact of oil price shocks. Two Caribbean economies highly vulnerable to oil price shocks are considered: an oil importer (Jamaica) and an oil exporter (Trinidad and Tobago). From a risk-sharing perspective, a desirable external capital structure is one that, through international capital gains and losses, helps offset responses of the current account balance to external shocks. It is found that both countries could alter their international portfolio to provide a better buffer against such shocks.
Gertler,Paul (Author), Heckman,James (Author), Pinto,Rodrigo (Author), Zanolini,Arianna (Author), Vermeerch,Christel (Author), Walker,Susan (Author), Chang,Susan M. (Author), and Grantham-McGregor,Sally (Author)
Format:
Pamphlet
Publication Date:
June 2013
Published:
National Bureau of Economic Research
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
58 p., Shows large effects on the earnings of participants from a randomized intervention that gave psychosocial stimulation to stunted Jamaican toddlers living in poverty. The intervention consisted of one-hour weekly visits from community Jamaican health workers over a 2-year period that taught parenting skills and encouraged mothers to interact and play with their children in ways that would develop their children's cognitive and personality skills. Study participants were re-interviewed 20 years after the intervention. Findings show that psychosocial stimulation early in childhood in disadvantaged settings can have substantial effects on labor market outcomes and reduce later life inequality.
1 online resource (20 pages), The small economies of the Caribbean have entered a period of extraordinary economic uncertainty driven by the impact of new trade rules on the region's agricultural sector; dramatic advances in technology that have lowered barriers to entry; and fierce global competition from large, low-wage countries in Asia. Furthermore, the Caribbean nations' ability to sustain a high level of social well-being is suffering due to the effects of broader economic change that has left the region in a reactive position. Against this backdrop, the services sector in the Caribbean may serve as an important source of economic growth, but only if the region begins to move beyond tourism to take advantage of emerging opportunities in the areas of banking and financial services, call centres and information and communication technology, off-shore education and health services, and transportation. This essay assesses the future prospects for the Caribbean to create a thriving service-based economy and offers ideas to help the region to both build on and transcend its reliance on tourism to carve a more profitable and sustainable niche in the global economy. Tables, Figures, References.
Examines social indicators of development and manifestations of poverty in Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic; profiles the poor, including geographic distribution, education, ethnicity, and consumption patterns.
Constructs a monetary policy indicator from monetary policy documents and the actions of the Bank of Jamaica and Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, and uses it to estimate four variants of an analytical narrative-vector error correction model.
Through a genealogy of Jamaican disaster management, shows how participatory and mitigation techniques were deterritorialized from marginalized experiences of disaster and reterritorialized into mitigation policies through the confluence of local disaster events and the global emergence of sustainable development and resilience theory.
Argues that China has gained influence in multilateral institutions, prompting them toward greater acceptance of public spending in developing countries and that recent developments in Cuba show that China is actively encouraging the Western hemisphere's only communist country to liberalize its economy. China sits at the crossroads of these local and global developments, prompting Cuba toward rapprochement with international norms even as it works to reform them.
190 p., Reviews legislation and government policy related to combating human trafficking in eight Caribbean countries: The Bahamas, Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, the Netherlands Antilles, St Lucia, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.NBThis review has assessed the applicability of existing statute law for the prosecution of human traffickers, the protection of trafficking victims and the prevention of trafficking activities. This includes criminal provisions that constitute one or more elements of the trafficking process such as procurement, forced detention, prostitution, sexual offences, kidnapping, abduction and other offences against the person. These elements can then be used in combination as a "patchwork" replacement for a trafficking law.
24 pp., 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.
74 p., The country case studies and thematic papers in this series examine social policy issues facing small states and their implications for economic development. They show how, despite their inherent vulnerability, some small states have been successful in improving their social indicators because of the complementary social and economic policies they have implemented. This paper focuses on Grenada, a small state that has made impressive initial achievements in economic and human development since independence. However, continuing unemployment and poverty, the recent erosion of trade preferences, and the changing international donor aid environment have exposed structural weaknesses in its economic model. Tables, Figures, References.
37 p., Discusses the evolution of housing conditions in urban areas of Latin America and the Caribbean from 1995 to 2006 based on data from household surveys done in 18 countries that comprise 95 percent of the urban population of the region. The results indicate that, on average, the proportion of urban households facing housing shortages is declining. This decline holds for households of all income levels, particularly those in the lower quintiles of the income distribution structure. The estimates made in this study indicate that in 2006 lack of infrastructure affected almost 19 million households.
International Bank for Reconstruction and Development
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
323 p., Despite sustained economic growth at the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st century, Latin America and the Caribbean still faces high inequality and weak indicators of well-being among certain population groups. Women, people of African ancestry, and indigenous peoples are often at the bottom of the income distribution. The share of female-headed households rose in the past 20 years. By the beginning of the 1990s, women headed 1.2 percent of complete households (households in which both husband and wife are present) and 79.8 percent of single- head households. This book presents a regional overview of gender and ethnic disparities in labor earnings during this last turn of the century. Latin America and the Caribbean provide a rich environment for studying social inequality, because historical inequalities along gender and ethnic lines persist, despite positive indicators of economic development.
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development/Organisation de Cooperation et de Developpement Economiques
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
164 p., Even in the midst of a global financial crisis, Latin American and Caribbean economies find themselves in better condition than in years past. Latin America must seize this opportunity to design and implement good public policies. The greatest of the long-term objectives of Latin American states remains development: economic growth and structural change that is rapid, sustainable and inclusive. In particular, governments must reduce inequalities in income, public-service delivery and opportunities, as well as promote the diversification of economies, often concentrated on a few primary-product exports. Improved efficiency of public administration is crucial to address both the short-term and long-term dimensions of these challenges. The real change, however, will come if Latin American and Caribbean states carry out meaningful fiscal reforms, making them not only more efficient but also more effective.
83 p., Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) programs have become the main social assistance interventions in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), reaching 129 million individuals in 18 countries in 2010. Programs shared key characteristics such as the payment of cash grants and the incorporation of co-responsibilities, but varied greatly in terms of coverage, infrastructure, routines, and even objectives. In this study, we analyze the experience of six countries (Brazil, Colombia, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico and Peru) and attempt to identify important lessons for countries that have recently started or that are currently considering the introduction of a CCT.
Argues that the architecture of the world monetary-financial sphere should be changed by reforming the Jamaica world monetary system and establishing a more transparent and sustainable mechanism for the transborder movement of capital. K. Cargill
London New York: Cassell Distributed in North America by Monthly Review Press
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
220 p, The Caribbean has the fortune—and the misfortune—to be everyone's idea of a tropical paradise. Its sun, sand and scenery attract millions of visitors each year and make it a profitable destination for the world's fastest growing industry.
Assesses if the economies of Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and Guyana can form part of a Caribbean monetary union. Correlations between the demand and supply indicate that monetary union may lead to greater stabilization problems for these economies.
Examines four case studies of renewable energy advancements being made by public utility companies and independent energy companies in the Caribbean. Attempts to locate renewable energy advances in a broader historical framework of energy sector development, indicating a few policy lessons.
Explores female entrepreneurial activities in 13 Latin American and Caribbean countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Jamaica, Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay and Venezuela. Specifically explores the following research questions: What percentage of the female and male Latin American populations is involved in opportunity- and necessity-based entrepreneurial activities? And what quality of institutions is associated with female entrepreneurial activity opportunity and necessity rates?
The ongoing review of defamation laws by the Jamaican government has sharpened the focus on the need to identify appropriate standards for public officials in libel actions in light of the growing recognition of a need for transparency. This article explores how British, Caribbean and U.S. jurisdictions have sought to manage the paradigm shift between the right to reputation and the need to ensure responsible and accountable governance. The aim is to identify a path of reform for Caribbean defamation law that ensures greater public official accountability and better incorporates twenty-first century notions of democracy.
In 2008, a new style in Jamaican dancehall music and dance culture known as "Daggering" emerged. Daggering music and dancing, which included lyrics that graphically referred to sexual activities and a dance which has been described as "dry sex" on the dance floor, took Jamaica by storm. The Broadcasting Commission of Jamaica was forced to crack down on broadcasting and cable stations preventing them from playing any Daggering content. This article focuses on the subsequent clash between the government and the dancehall, and seeks to identify an appropriate method for monitoring and enforcing these new standards.
International Bank for Reconstruction and Development
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
2 pp., Costa Rica is one of the most earthquake-prone countries in the World due to the tectonic interaction of the Cocos and Caribbean plates. Earthquakes, and other natural hazards, place major stress on the country's population, infrastructure and economy, and often result in the disruption of basic services. In response to this, the Government of Costa Rica is continuously working to build the capacity of technicians to design effective disaster risk management policies and investments to reduce seismic risk.
Focuses on the role of young women in the development of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Mentions the pregnancy in LAC is caused by the low socioeconomic situation of young women. States that the lack of information on sexuality education and an inclusive system for health and social protection will increase the chance of poverty.
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
15 p., Warns about a series of crises that have increased the potential for serious trouble in Haiti. Suggests there is an urgent need for broad political consensus and improved relations between the executive and legislative branches of government, as well as a government-donor-civil society partnership to kick-start a community-oriented reconstruction process. This includes building a social safety net for hurricane victims and jobs-oriented infrastructure projects that prioritize areas hard-hit by the floods, boosting agriculture and enhancing a longer-term poverty reduction and economic growth strategy.
Discusses the relationship between economic conditions and discourses surrounding partner choice in Cuba. Holds that economic changes caused by the collapse of the Soviet Union have necessitated strategies economic survival which differ from previously-held ideals of romantic partnerships. Suggests that anxieties surrounding changes in gender and kinship relations also reflect broader concerns about Cuba's social and economic hierarchies and the future of socialism.
Arias,Diego (Author), Brearley,Emily (Author), and Damais,Gilles (Author)
Format:
Pamphlet
Publication Date:
2006
Published:
Inter-American Development Bank
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
46 p., This paper deals with the coffee industry in Haiti. Coffee has traditionally played a unique role in rural Haiti, in economic, social and environmental terms. However, the competitiveness of the coffee sector of Haiti has been declining over recent years due to a combination of external and domestic factors. This study analyses the current situation and the opportunities and challenges presented for improving the competitiveness of the coffee sector in Haiti in a sustainable manner. It presents a public policy framework to guide the public support and interventions. It concludes that support should be provided to help the coffee sector supply chain reap the potential benefits from new market opportunities, protect key environmental services in upper watersheds, and set an example for other agriculture and rural productive activitiesin Haiti.
Argues that neoliberalism carries out its agenda of privatization through public spaces that are never fully dismantled. Draws on empirical research into spaces that exemplify the usefulness of our reading of neoliberal privatization, including aspects of post-Katrina New Orleans and a more thorough case study of a pre- and post-earthquake Haiti and its highly privatized education system.
Becerra,Oscar (Author), Cavallo,Eduardo (Author), and Powell,Andrew (Author)
Format:
Pamphlet
Publication Date:
Feb 2010
Published:
Inter-American Development Bank
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
20 p., This paper uses simple regression techniques to make an initial assessment of the monetary damages caused by the January 12, 2010 earthquake that struck Haiti. Damages are estimated for a disaster with both 200,000 and 250,000 total dead and missing (i. e. , the range of mortality that the earthquake is estimated to have caused) using Haiti's economic and demographic data.
Part of a special journal issue dedicated to strategies for societal renewal in Haiti., Building back a better Haiti will require a radically different approach to education. A combination of improved funding, smart allocation of resources, and use of low-cost modern technology may allow Haiti to leapfrog to significantly higher performance levels.
Focuses on the slow progress of Haiti after two years of earthquake in Canada. Offers information on the reconstruction failure of the organization Canadian Red Cross and other communities even after providing the financial help and donations. Also discusses the reasons where the Canadian Red Cross is lacking to improve the condition of Haiti.
Clemens,Michael (Author) and Velayudhan,Tejaswi (Author)
Format:
Pamphlet
Publication Date:
Oct 2011
Published:
Center for Global Development
Location:
African American Research Center, Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Notes:
4 p., The United States should take modest steps to create a legal channel for limited numbers of people fleeing natural disasters overseas to enter the United States. This would address two related problems: the lack of any systematic US policy to help the growing numbers of people displaced across borders by natural disasters and the inability of US humanitarian relief efforts to reduce systemic poverty or sustainably improve victims' livelihoods. The aftermath of the 2010 Haiti earthquake presents a compelling case study of the administrative and legislative ways the US government could address both problems. Migration is already a proven and powerful force for reducing Haitians' poverty. A few modest changes in the US approach could greatly aid Haiti's recovery.
Part of a special journal issue dedicated to strategies for societal renewal in Haiti., Based on what is known about the role of women in development, the highest returns to investment are likely to come from initiatives that harness the productive capacity of women.
The long-term prosperity and peace in Haiti depend on pursuing policies that have realistic prospects for implementation and are mutually coherent. Priorities include reforming the civil service and justice systems, streamlining regulations for business, reconstructing housing and infrastructure, improving schools and health care, and ensuring donor cooperation.
The Sphere Project, "Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response," identifies the minimum standards to be attained in disaster response. From a human rights perspective and utilizing key indicators from the Sphere Project as benchmarks, this article reports on an assessment of the living conditions approximately 12 weeks after the earthquake in Parc Jean Marie Vincent, a spontaneous IDP camp in Port-au-Prince.
