(pp.133-144) S. C. Joseph, R. Hosein and M. Franklin ‘Caribbean home town associations’, World Sustainable Development Outlook, 2010
SAMANTHA C. JOSEPH, ROGER HOSEIN AND MARTIN FRANKLIN, UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST INDIES, TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
DOI:10.47556/B.OUTLOOK2010.8.12
Abstract: The Caribbean has one of the largest diasporas with a wealth of resources that can be leveraged for the development of the region. The members of the Caribbean diaspora form part of various Home Town Associations (HTAs) which have the ability to impact development in the region in many ways. Notwithstanding, the Caribbean Diaspora has remained an underutilised resource for decades. This paper seeks to examine the potential of Caribbean HTAs not only as an avenue to harness collective remittance flows for increasing foreign currency flows to the region but also to contribute to the social, cultural and economic development of the Caribbean region. HTAs can serve as an indirect engine of economic development in the Caribbean region. This can be further facilitated by the Caribbean embassies in the various metropolitan countries. The paper concludes by emphasising the point that the HTAs must be embraced by a facilitating mechanism in order for these to be included in the region’s developmental plans.
Keywords: Home Town Associations; HTAs; embassies; remittances; economic development.