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DEVELOPMENT: Oil-Rich Trinidad Confronts Its Darker Side

Peter Richards

PORT OF SPAIN, Feb 1 2005 (IPS) - It is considered the most economically well-off country in the English-speaking Caribbean.

But Trinidad and Tobago’s oil wealth does not change the fact that the twin-island state still grapples with the same socioeconomic problems confronting its poorer neighbours.

"While Trinidad and Tobago ranks in the high range of the UNDP Human Development Index, poverty and inequality remain real challenges," says Inyang Ebong-Harstrup, the local representative of the U.N. Development Programme, who noted that nine percent of households earn less than 83 dollars a month.

Trinidad and Tobago was one of eight countries chosen for the launch of a U.N. report describing how to achieve its Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), an ambitious plan to cut hunger and poverty in half, halt the spread of AIDS and provide universal primary education by 2015.

Ebong-Harstrup said that the Millennium Project Report proposes a paradigm shift in thinking from charity-oriented solutions to strategies for long-term development.

"We are talking about strategies of investment to help empower the lives of very poor people who lack the tools and sometimes even the basic means to stay alive, much less to be productive members of a fast-paced world economy," she said.

"We are talking about investment in people themselves, in their health, nutrition, education, family planning and sexual and reproductive health services."

Trinidad and Tobago is in the process of completing its first national MDG report. Officials say this will lay the foundation for its Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS), a key document that includes a needs assessment, a policy framework through 2015, and a financing plan and budget.

Ebong-Harstrup said that developing country governments, including Trinidad and Tobago, should work hard to have a PRS in place by the end of 2006.

The Patrick Manning administration believes its plans to attain developed status by 2020 are in keeping with the initiatives of the Millennium Project.

"We are well on the way to setting an agenda where achievement of the (Millennium Development) Goals is central to our development strategy," says Christine Sahadeo, the junior finance minister.

Sahadeo said that although Trinidad and Tobago accounts for less than one percent of the world’s known reserves of oil and gas, it has nonetheless established a presence as a leading producer and exporter of natural gas and petrochemicals.

"This sector will now be used as the catalyst for development of other economic sectors, and support our pursuit for massive development," she explained.

"This pursuit embraces the goal of improvement and enhancement in the quality of life of all the people of Trinidad and Tobago, a goal which in its simplicity recognises the deep underlying principle of the right of the individual to health, education, shelter and security."

The authorities are hoping to conduct a national survey on living conditions this year, following two similar surveys in 1992 and 1997, to update a database that would inform future interventions.

Gregory Sloane-Seale, director of the Trinidad and Tobago Young Men’s Christian Association, said many people between the ages of 18 and 30 face the frightening prospect of homelessness even though they may have a decent education and a job.

The government has launched an initiative to build 10,000 new houses per year, using both private and public funding, but Sloane-Seale said in a letter published in the local media Tuesday that his organisation was receiving calls on a daily basis from young people seeking affordable housing.

"On enquiry, we have realised that the options are few and far between and this has led to many young persons compromising themselves and placed in situations where sexual and other forms of exploitation take place," he said.

Figures released by the state-owned Central Statistical Office show that 17.4 percent of the population lives in overcrowded housing.

Sloane-Seale is urging the authorities to construct low-cost units specifically for young adults, "as it is their only hope of living, working, saving and hopefully laying a financial foundation for them to someday own their own place".

In terms of education, Trinidad and Tobago has already made significant progress toward the goals of achieving universal primary and secondary education. But in contrast with many developing countries, girls outnumber boys in the nation’s schools.

At the college level, according to enrolment data from the local campus of the University of the West Indies, females outnumber males by as much as four to one.

Class inequities also persist. A UNDP study in 2000 showed that three-quarters of the heads of poor households have no educational qualifications.

In the health sector, HIV/AIDS remains a serious problem, although dengue, diabetes and hypertension are also areas of concern for officials.

In fact, hypertension and diabetes have been identified as the two leading causes of death in Trinidad and Tobago. The government hopes that a health sector reform programme supported by the Inter-American Development Bank will address that issue, as well as meet the goals of reducing maternal and child mortality.

Another programme that distributes free medicine to the elderly and disabled is also being touted as part of the administration’s push to achieve the MDGs.

There are currently 28,000 people living with HIV/AIDS in the islands – slightly more than three percent of the population.

Dr. Amery Browne, technical director of the National Aids Coordinating Committee, which has a five-year plan to attack the disease, says that for every young man newly infected with the HIV virus, three young women are infected.

"We need to break the cycle of new infections," Browne said, adding that discrimination against people living with AIDS remained a significant obstacle.

"We need to target the youth," he said. "Wherever you are from in this country, HIV is part of your community and you need to be part of the solution."