Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has assured that her Government will respond decisively to mounting pressures while keeping people at the centre of development.
Speaking at the Caribbean Launch of the UNDP’s Regional Human Development Report 2025, titled Under Pressure: Recalibrating the Future of Development in Latin America and the Caribbean, at the Diplomatic Centre on Thursday, she emphasised that development efforts cannot be based on outdated models.
“They say leadership in this very modern era must rest on three anchors. One, courage to act when the path is unclear, discipline to prepare before the next wave strikes, and the imagination to design solutions fit for tomorrow, not for yesterday. We can’t govern looking back in the rearview mirror. We must design for tomorrow.”
Reflecting on the Regional Human Development Report 2025, the Prime Minister acknowledged that while progress has been made across Latin America and the Caribbean, the region remains very fragile.
“In just one generation, poverty was cut by half. Yet today, one in four people in our region still live in poverty, and another one-third live so close to the edge that a single shock can just push them over. The Human Development Index, which once rose steadily year after year, slowed sharply in mid-2010s. Then came COVID-19, which caused the first decline in the index in our history. Recovery since then has been uneven and uncertain. Today, our region faces uncertainty. Levels that are higher than the global, 50% higher than the global average, and the truth is crises no longer come one at a time. That is what this report rightly calls a poly-crisis.”
The Prime Minister insisted that a model should be adopted where a single crisis cannot erase decades of hard work, and where every gain is protected and shared.
“This vision calls for action. We can all understand, such as protecting small states through debt for climate swaps, debt for climate swaps, and catastrophe-linked financing. Building regional value chains in food, in health, in the creative industries, the renewable energy sector, and so our economies can grow together. Expanding carbon risk pools and early warning systems to shield our communities from natural disasters before the strike. Confronting cross-border crime and confronting cross-border crime with stronger intelligence sharing, coordinated maritime security, and recovery strategies that rebuild trust in communities and the affected. In this way, resilience stops being a slogan. Instead, it becomes a safeguard for our people, our region, and our future.”
She also emphasised the importance of digital transformation and emerging technologies as tools for empowerment.
“Digital transformation, artificial intelligence, and new technologies are not mere tools. They are accelerators of human development. When harnessed responsibly, they can expand access to education, they can improve public services, and they can create new pathways of opportunity. But if we fail to act, they can also deepen our divides. Our national strategy must enshrine digital access, AI governance, and innovation ecosystems that empower every citizen.”
The Prime Minister reaffirmed her government’s commitment to a people-centred development agenda, and pledged to build institutions that are responsive and capable of navigating complex, fast-changing environments.
“My government is committed to building mechanisms that help us navigate uncertainty with clarity and purpose. We will construct institutions that embrace complexity and respond with agility. We will invest in infrastructure that empowers communities in Trinidad and in Tobago. We will create an environment where every citizen in every community feels safe, feels heard, and above all, to be known that you’re seen. We see you, we hear you.”
The Prime Minister urged all sectors of society to work together to build a better, resilient world.
“It falls to all of us, governments, civil society, the private sector, our youth and our diaspora, and our allies around the globe to act with courage, to act with imagination, and to act with faith. Together, let us turn risk into resilience, pressure into progress, and uncertainty into opportunity for T&T and for the region, and indeed for all humanity.”