As the Caribbean faces mounting social, economic and environmental risks and uncertainties, governments in the region must seek to harness the experiences learned from the COVID-19 pandemic and recent natural disasters to drive transformative resilience. 

The Caribbean region has been one of the world’s most successful examples of resilience given the region’s enduring political stability and continued development in the face of unflinching external economic shocks, global geopolitical tensions, natural disasters, limited natural resources and its many structural limitations.

Caribbean states have managed to achieve and sustain high levels of human development. Tourism has returned to pre-pandemic levels and labour markets have staged a complete recovery. Growth in the region, although having slowed following the pandemic recovery, remains on an upward trajectory. Nevertheless, the Caribbean does have problems. The immensity of global uncertainties necessitates policy makers to reflect on growing inequalities and vulnerabilities in the region and pay keen attention to the future risks it now faces. 

Efforts must be made to embed resilience in development by seeking to improve and strengthen governance structures and systems by investing in digital and technological infrastructure and systems, human capital development as well as disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation and prevention measures.