It would be observed from an article published in our March 24, 2017 issue captioned, “CDB funds for eight Caribbean countries, excludes Montserrat,” where it stated, “The Barbados-based Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) says it is providing US$40 million in funding for poverty reduction in eight Caribbean through the Basic Needs Trust Fund (BNTF).” (see: https://www.themontserratreporter.com/cdb-funds-for-eight-caribbean-countries-excludes-montserrat/)
There it stated the eight countries which did not include Montserrat, the Turks and Caicos Islands and St Kitts & Nevis who the article pointed out, are noticeably missing from the program from which they have benefited immensely over the years. It further stated that these countries, will lose the support it needed as in the past: improved access to quality education; water and sanitation; basic community access and drainage; livelihoods enhancement and human resource development services in low-income and vulnerable communities under the ninth phase of BNTF (BNTF 9).
The news did not float by in Montserrat without due notice. The Assembly opposition and critics quickly felt, that enough has not been done to ensure that Montserrat continues to benefit from the B.N. T.F. program. Montserrat, they argued, is as far as possible from the stage where it can be safely said that it is a high-income state. They suggested, wrongly some other observers believe, that correctly Montserrat has a number of basic needs, but wrongly when they go on to say Her Majesty’s aid program alone cannot handle.
AS a follower-up while agreeing that Montserrat in actuality despite what economic figures and analysis might show statistically Montserrat will for a long time be not in a position to do without the help and attention that such aid programs provide in addition to the UK Government’s aid packages which at the moment are mostly aimed for the recurrent budget.
The Premier earlier this week said he would launch a campaign to secure the backing of OECS Heads of Government in support of Montserrat’s challenge to the Caribbean Development Bank C.D.B. begins in earnest on Wednesday. Premier Donaldson Romeo said he was confident that he could canvass the support of his regional colleagues during the summit. He wanted the regional leaders to back Montserrat’s Campaign to have the CDB rethink its position to drop the island from its BNTF Beneficiary list.
The Premier told TMR, sharing the view that all the the participating countries who benefit under the BNTF programs share many common characteristics and face a number of challenges inherent to small, open economies. He said “we are even worst off that some who face challenges associated with limited diversity in production and extreme vulnerability to natural hazards, which is now exacerbated by climate change and other external shocks,” as said before by, CDB Director of Projects, Daniel Best.
