Toward a More Inclusive Post-COVID Recovery: A Tool to Further the Caribbean Policy Agenda

The Caribbean is a grouping of islands and low-lying coastal countries of sovereign nations and dependent territories that share a history of colonialism and coloniality,1 which has shaped and continues to shape their “complex mix of political and administrative structures”. Indeed, Caribbean nations experience a “paradoxical, type of political sovereignty and experience of development”. All Caribbean nations have been classified by the United Nations as Small Island Developing States (SIDS), taking account of “the peculiar social, economic and environmental vulnerabilities” they experience. Caribbean SIDS are highly indebted and vulnerable to climate change, hurricanes and other natural hazards. At the same time, theirs is a paradoxical existence as their vulnerabilities place them alongside least developed countries, in spite of some being designated by the World Bank as high or middle-income countries. Such classification limits access to the international financing needed towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.