Caribbean Community And Common Market Research Articles

Palliative care integration: a critical review of nurse migration effect in Jamaica

BackgroundProvision of palliative care to individuals with late-stage serious illnesses is critical to reduce suffering. Palliative care is slowly gaining momentum in Jamaica but requires a highly skilled workforce, including nurses. Out-migration of nurses to wealthier countries negatively impacts the delivery of health care services and may impede palliative care capacity-building. This critical review aimed to explore the evidence pertaining to the nurse migration effect on the integration of palliative care services in Jamaica and to formulate hypotheses about potential mitigating strategies.MethodsA comprehensive search in the PubMed, CINAHL, and ProQuest PAIS databases aimed to identify articles pertinent to nurse migration in the Caribbean context. Grant and Booth’s methodologic framework for critical reviews was used to evaluate the literature. This methodology uses a narrative, chronologic synthesis and was guided by the World Health Organization (WHO) Public Health Model and the Model of Sustainability in Global Nursing.ResultsData from 14 articles were extracted and mapped. Poorer patient outcomes were in part attributed to the out-migration of the most skilled nurses. ‘Push-factors’ such as aggressive recruitment by wealthier countries, lack of continuing educational opportunities, disparate wages, and a lack of professional autonomy and respect were clear contributors. Gender inequalities negatively impacted females and children left behind. Poor working conditions were not necessarily a primary reason for nurse migration. Four main themes were identified across articles: (a) globalization creating opportunities for migration, (b) recruitment of skilled professionals from CARICOM by high income countries, (c) imbalance and inequities resulting from migration, and (d) mitigation strategies. Thirteen articles suggested education, partnerships, policy, and incentives as mitigation strategies. Those strategies directly align with the WHO Public Health Model drivers to palliative care integration.ConclusionEmerged evidence supports that nurse migration is an ongoing phenomenon that strains health systems in Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) countries, with Jamaica being deeply impacted. This critical review demonstrates the importance of strategically addressing nurse migration as part of palliative care integration efforts in Jamaica. Future studies should include targeted migration mitigation interventions and should be guided by the three working hypotheses derived from this review.

Geography and Caribbean Integration

Abstract Using the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) countries as the units of analysis, this article seeks to achieve three goals: 1) explain theoretically the basis for the existence of self-determination or fragmentation agendas; 2) show how geography, exploitation, neglect and historical memory contribute to fragmentation by fostering the emergence of self-determination movements; and 3) argue from a policy perspective that these self-determination agendas must become integral parts of the policy discourse if a region is to achieve meaningful integration and solidarity.

International cooperation: drugs donated by the Brazilian government, 2005-2016Cooperación internacional: donaciones de medicamentos del gobierno brasileño entre el 2005 y el 2016

RESUMOObjetivo.Fazer um levantamento acerca das doações internacionais de medicamentos pelo governo brasileiro de 2005 a 2016, identificando o número de unidades de medicamentos doadas e o montante financeiro que esse volume representa.Métodos.Estudo descritivo e exploratório utilizando análise de dados secundários disponíveis no Sistema de Gestão de Materiais do Ministério da Saúde (SISMAT). Foram levantadas informações sobre país solicitante, ano da doação, medicamento, número de unidades farmacêuticas doadas e valor correspondente (em reais).Resultados.No período estudado, 66 554 892 unidades de medicamentos foram doadas, correspondendo a 84 371 308,72 reais (25 505 235,70 dólares). Foram doados medicamentos para Angola, Benin, Bolívia, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Colômbia, Costa do Marfim, Cuba, El Salvador, Equador, Guatemala, Guiana, Guiné Bissau, Haiti, Honduras, Líbia, Moçambique, Nicarágua, Paraguai, Peru, República Dominicana, São Tomé e Príncipe, Síria e Suriname, países do Mercado Comum e Comunidade do Caribe (CARICOM) e Organização Pan-Americana da Saúde (OPAS). Não foi detectado nenhum padrão de distribuição em termos quantitativos. Picos no número de medicamentos doados ocorreram em 2008, 2011 e 2012, com maior número de países contemplados em 2006 e 2012 (13 e 14 países, respectivamente). Foram doados medicamentos para HIV/Aids, malária, leishmaniose, diabetes, cólera, esquistossomose, tuberculose, gripe influenza, doenças oportunistas, imunizações, suporte nutricional e calamidade pública.Conclusões.Em grande medida, os medicamentos doados foram antimicrobianos utilizados para tratamento de doenças tropicais negligenciadas. Estudos adicionais são sugeridos para correlacionar intervenções de saúde pública com as doações de medicamentos, como forma de promover o desenvolvimento econômico sustentável dos países beneficiários.

PETROCARIBE AND THE VENEZUELAN CLAIM OVER THE ESSEQUIBO: A POLITICAL CULTURE VERSUS THE POLICY OF THE CULTURE

Cultural identity can define political interests through particular policies that advance such identity, while, on the other hand, there is political culture where political calculations are pre-eminent. Both of these tendencies are present in the case involving the Venezuelan energy initiative PETROCARIBE and its very poor outcomes. The PETROCARIBE initiative launched by Hugo Chávez as a part of a pact to assist in the economic and social development of countries in the Caribbean while enhancing Venezuelan ideological influence and regional power countered challenges, among which were cultural barriers embedded in the very making of the Carribean as a region. Cultural barriers were also evident in the recent ‘betrayal’ of Venezuela by the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM), which backed Guyana over Venezuela in the competing claims over the territory of Essequibo. Is culture the real obstacle to Venezuela’s quest for its Caribbean identity? Though there are many examples in the world of successful integration involving countries of different cultures, this article argues that the PETROCARIBE initiative in a region whose region-ness is complex and more imagined than real was a huge political mistake that may contribute to the fall of the revolutionary government in Venezuela.

What Have Remittances Done to Development? Evidence from the Caribbean Community and Common Market

This paper analyzes the long-run impact of remittances on socio-economic development in the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) between 1970 and 2013. We find that remittances have improved the health indicators, reducing infant and child mortality, and food deficit and improving life expectancy, and sanitation and water sources, especially in the rural areas. However, remittance inflows have no significant impact on education and communication infrastructure. Neither do they contribute to any demographic changes.

The Right of Free Movement within Caricom: A Step towards Caribbean ‘Citizenship’? Lessons from the European Union

Freedom of movement has generally been regarded as one of the defining characteristics of a common market, of which the European Union is probably the best known example; expanding from a right of free movement for workers into a right of European ‘citizenship’. By contrast, the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) originally made no provision for freedom of movement for its nationals and has only latterly introduced a limited right to free movement. It would be wrong, however, to infer that the right of free movement within CARICOM will evolve into a right of Caribbean ‘citizenship’ for two interconnected reasons. The first derives from the absence of any desire on the part of the Heads of Government of CARICOM to use freedom of movement as a stepping-stone towards a political union. The second is linked to the institutional and legal infrastructure underpinning CARICOM, which makes it difficult for a right of Caribbean citizenship to evolve without the support of the Heads of Government.

Do remittances promote economic growth in the Caribbean Community and Common Market?

The paper investigates the economic importance of remittance flows to the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM). Utilizing panel cointegration tests, the results show that there is no evidence of a long-run relationship between remittances and real GDP per capita or investment but some evidence of a long-run relationship between remittances and consumption. This suggests that remittance inflows to the CARICOM region are used for consumption purposes rather than productivity improving spending.

CARICOM: Regional Integration in a Post‐Colonial World

AbstractThis article argues that the distinctive form of economic integration within the Commonwealth Caribbean can best be understood if account is taken of the imprint of colonial rule both upon relations between these former colonies and upon the political consciousness of the region's leaders. The legacy of colonial rule, including the abortive attempt at a West Indies Federation, resulted not only in a profound mistrust of any form of political union but also established the ideal of island self‐government as the centre of the region's political culture. This is clearly manifest in the institutional structure and governance of the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM), which is based on the principles of intergovernmentalism. Notwithstanding some recent changes to that institutional structure, such as the introduction of the Caribbean Court of Justice, Member States remain firmly committed to the pursuit of regional integration through cooperation and association without any transfer of their sovereign decision‐making powers. It will be argued, however, that this will not only make it increasingly difficult to achieve the economic objectives of CARICOM, but will also make it increasingly difficult to maintain the fragile sense of regional unity, originally forged in the crucible of colonial rule, in a post‐colonial world as new alliances both within and without the region begin to emerge.

Engineering Perspectives on Reducing Hurricane Damage to Housing in CARICOM Caribbean Islands

The annual hurricane related losses to Caribbean residential buildings in the past two decades highlight the societal and socioeconomic vulnerability of these islands. Despite considerable hurricane disaster mitigation activity in the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM), the housing sector in particular remains at an elevated risk for damage. Improving the structural resiliency of homes has been largely ineffective, as was illustrated by damage to most of the Grenadian housing stock from Hurricane Ivan in 2004. While international and regional interventions have provided emergency postdisaster aid, sustained efforts to improve design and construction practices and foster sustainable mitigation activity are lacking, with the limited projects not gaining much traction in the construction sector. This paper provides an exploratory framework of the issues surrounding wind damage mitigation and the construction of residential structures to improve overall hurricane resilience in the CARICOM states. It synthesizes 35 years of research findings about Caribbean hazard mitigation initiatives, many of which are not available to researchers in other geographic settings. The uniqueness of the Caribbean housing stock, the importance of small-scale economies, the existing socioeconomic constraints, and the effectiveness of regional and international residential construction mitigation strategies are also evaluated. Finally, the paper identifies and prioritizes critical avenues of future research to improve the resiliency of the CARICOM residential building stock.

The efficiency of the stock market in the CARICOM sub-region: an empirical study

The objective of this article is to determine whether the stock exchanges of Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and the virtual Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) Regional Stock Exchange (CRSE), as well as the banking, conglomerate, financial and manufacturing sectors of these exchanges, are weak-form efficient or not. Three sets of tests are used: two parametric and one nonparametric. There are lot of similarities in the evidence provided by the two parametric approaches: a traditional Box–Jenkins-type ‘correlation’ analysis to test the random-walk hypothesis and the Lo–MacKinlay's heteroscedasticity-robust and nonrobust variance-ratio tests. However, a nonparametric variant of the Lo–MacKinlay test due to Wright, based on ranks and signs, generally provides quite different results, particularly the sign test. A recommendation is made to use Wright's tests in preference to the others when examining efficiency in the CARICOM and similar exchanges. This leads to the conclusion that all exc...

Bridging the Digital Divide in Caribbean Group Decision‐Making

AbstractCaribbean organizations, like their counterparts in developed countries, engage in countless group decision meetings that require structuring mechanisms to help produce effective outcomes. However, no such meeting support was available to the breakout sessions at the January 2003 meeting of The United Nations information and communication technologies (UNICT) task force to discuss the digital divide as it affects Caribbean community and common market (CARICOM) countries. Whereas group support systems (GSS) have been widely discussed in the literature, there is no evidence of their use in the English‐speaking Caribbean, a situation which may be classified as another instance of the digital divide. Against this backdrop, we examine the process of organizational decision‐making within groups, the factors influencing group behaviors and interaction and the advantages and disadvantages of structuring mechanisms such as the technology‐enabled GSS and the manual, nominal group technique (NGT). The paper concludes that it is desirable for Caribbean nations to acquire GSS technology to reap some of the benefits that other developing countries have experienced. However, despite its runner‐up status (to GSS), NGT provides similar assistance to that offered by GSS, is implementation‐friendly, inexpensive, and outperforms other manual techniques in creative decision‐making; it is therefore a viable alternative for Caribbean nations struggling to bridge the digital divide.

The Demand for Labor in Caribbean Community MDCs

This article presents a comparative analysis of labor market demand in the three major economies of the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) in the period since 1970. The regression analysis indicates that the manufacturing sectors in Barbados and Jamaica were more responsive to changing domestic and international market conditions than the agricultural sectors, or than the Trinidad & Tobago manufacturing sector. Other important conclusions based on specifications at the aggregate level are that the real wage explained labor demand only in Jamaica, and that there was a secular increase in the demand for labor in both Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago, even after wages and output were controlled for. Taken in conjunction with the other findings for Trinidad & Tobago, we conclude that there is a need to focus on other sectors as important employers of labor in the period under analysis.

The politics of higher education within a regional context: The Caribbean community and common market (CARICOM)

(1987). The politics of higher education within a regional context: The Caribbean community and common market (CARICOM) The Journal of Commonwealth & Comparative Politics: Vol. 25, No. 2, pp. 180-195.

Integration and development in the Commonwealth Caribbean: the politics of regional negotiations

In 1968, just ten years after the ill-fated West Indies Federation had been established, Caribbean regional integration was re-launched with the creation of the Caribbean Free Trade Association (CARIFTA). By 1974, the twelve Commonwealth Caribbean member countries had adhered to the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) which had evolved out of CARIFTA. This progress in the evolution of Caribbean integration stopped with the failure to adopt the Draft Agreement on Foreign Investment and Development of Technology, and since that time regional negotiations have been undermined by conflicts over intraregional trade and bilateral arrangements at the expense of regional cooperation. Analysis of the politics of regional negotiations in the Caribbean provides an interesting example of the process of integration among developing countries.