AS WRITTEN

COMMONWEALTH OF THE BAHAMAS

COUNTRY STATEMENT AT THE WORLD SUMMIT FOR SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
Copenhagen, Denmark 6 - 12 March, 1995

Delivered By:

Honourable Theresa Moxey-Ingraham
Minister of Health and Environment


COUNTRY STATEMENT - WORLD SUMMIT ON SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT


Congratulations, greetings etc.

 The Commonwealth of The Bahamas is an archipelago of over 700 islands and 
cays covering approximately 80,000 miles (215,000 square kilometers) off 
the Atlantic Ocean. The Bahamas lies just 50 miles (81 kilometers) east of 
Florida (U.S.A.) and extends 750 miles (1,2000 kilometers) southeastward to 
within 50 miles of Cuba and Haiti.

 The total land area of The Bahamas is approximately 5,3823 square miles 
(15,000 square kilometers about the size of Wales, or about two thirds the 
size of the State of Massachusetts in the United States.

 Twenty-two islands of The Bahamas are inhabited but the bulk of the 
population reside on fourteen of them. The population density of the 
islands ranges from 2152 per square miles in New Providence to 1.6 square 
miles in the least populated island.

 The population of The Bahamas was 209.5 thousand in 1980 and 255.1 
thousand in 1990, sixty-seven percent of whom reside in the capital of New 
Providence. Despite recent decreases in the birth rate, the population is 
expected to continue to increase at about 1.9 percent per annum. Because of 
the youthful age of the population, and the increase in the cohort of women 
in their fertile years, the number of birth per annum will still be large 
for many years to come. Over the last two decades, the labour force has 
been growing at an alarming rate of 8,5 percent. This has tremendous 
implications for training and employment resources.

 It becomes even more important when you consider the fact that the economy 
of The Bahamas depends heavily on tourism. You can appreciate then, the 
severe implications when world economic trends determine a slow-down in the 
tourist industry.

 All this means that our government has been challenged to find solutions 
to the problems of unemployment, poverty and social dis-integration in 
recent years.

 In 1993, the government of The Bahamas launched a major thrust towards 
Social Development and established a Ministry of Social Development. We are 
convinced that true social development happens with the full participation 
of all sectors of a society, but that major direction, major commitment of 
resources and manpower must come from the highest political level. My 
government has pledged to continue to be the leaders in the social 
development changes in our country.

 We see Social Development as a new social ethic which we hope will guide 
our social policy, our social legislation, our social spending as we take 
advantage of increasing economic opportunities and our move into the 21st 
century. This new social ethic places human beings - and particularly the 
poor - at the center of the development process and gives the needs of 
little children, and other disadvantaged groups a first call on concerns 
and resources of the country. It is a social ethic that recognizes the 
value of human development along with economic development. It recognizes 
that all the economic progress in the world becomes meaningless if along 
with that progress, there are not clearly defined policies and strategies 
for ensuring that the voiceless and the disadvantaged are factored into the 
full national picture.

 Social development is that new social ethic which supports the ideas of 
equal opportunity, training, equality and equity, social mobility and 
social and economic well-being, and is concerned with the development of 
marginal groups, those who are socially weak and those who require support 
and assistance in upgrading their living conditions, and participating in 
all opportunities that society has to offer.

 As we seek to fulfill our commitment to The Bahamian people, there are 
several issues that must be kept in focus as they have consequences for the 
success or failure of our efforts.

 The first is the archipelagic feature of the country which requires 
replication of basic services (Health, Education, etc.) to all the islands 
and communities of The Commonwealth, and the related demand for resources 
to ensure the border security of the country. Our inability to fully secure 
our borders and the scattered nature of our islands have often resulted in 
the trafficking and trans-shipment of illicit substances through our waters 
and the inflow to our shores of thousands of undocumented migrants, both 
matters which concern us greatly.

 The second is the growing trend towards single parent families and the 
diminishing capacity of these families to provide the nurturing and 
economic support required by family members. Further, there is the need to 
ensure that development policies are fully responsive to the diverse and 
changing requirements of families in their various forms.

 The third is the health of our people and the need for accessbile and 
affordable Health Care, and the rapidly escalating costs related to disease 
prevention and health promotion measures, the rise in sexually transmitted 
diseases including aids, maternal and child health services and family 
planning services.

The fourth is the effects of an unrelenting inflow of undocumented migrants 
upon the socio-economic structure of our island nation. This represents a 
very real burden on the limited and dwindling resources of the Health, 
Education, and Welfare Agencies which are finding it more and more 
difficult to meet the pressing demands for services.

 For more than three decades we in The Bahamas have been faced with the 
myriad problems associated with migration and have repeatedly indicated 
that we no longer have the capacity to absorb additional migrants not even 
on a temporary basis.

 Earlier this year my government successfully negotiated an agreement which 
will allow for the repatriation of a number of the large groups of 
undocumented migrants to their homeland. The Bahamas is most pleased with 
this agreement and the repatriation process has begun. My Government is 
committed to this exercise as the task of nation building and development 
has been severely compromised by the large number of undocumented migrants 
in proportion to the small population of an island nation like ours.

 We call upon members of the international community to increase their 
efforts towards assisting small island states like ours as they struggle to 
meet international obligations to undocumented migrants, while at the same 
time, attempt to stretch scarce resources to meet the social development 
demands of these small countries.

 The fifth concern relates to Human Resource Development where our goal is 
to provide quality education at all levels for all our citizens. Human 
Resource Development is central to economic development in that it embraces 
not only labour supply and demand, but treats population dynamics in their 
multiple aspects as endogenous to the development process.

 The sixth concern is centered around the status of women, children and the 
elderly. There are many issues involved here that impact upon our capacity 
to develop. These involve the growing number of households headed by women, 
many of whom are elderly, women's reproductive health; adolescent 
pregnancies; sexual and physical violence against women and children; 
women's participation in the labour force; women's parental 
responsibilities, among others. In this light, we recognize the progress 
made last summer at the Cairo Conference on Population & Development and 
join other nations in acknowledging that the issue of development is 
inseparable from the issue of the status of women and children and whatever 
strategies are employed to improve their quality of life.

 A final concern is a rapidly increasing youth segment of our population 
and the inability of our economic system to provide them with gainful 
employment,. Coupled with this is a growing awareness that an out-dated 
school system fails to equip the great majority of our young people with 
life skills and training opportunities that will enable them to find jobs 
after school. The results of this problem are no different from anywhere 
else in the world - increasing marginalization of our young people, 
alienation, social deviance and increasing poverty.

 Any social development initiative if it is to be successful in engendering 
social well being must be carried out in partnership with the community and 
the individuals we seek to serve. The professionals cannot do it alone and 
government resources are never sufficient.

 The government, any government, will never have all the resources 
necessary to fulfill the Social Development demands of a country. On the 
other hand, the private and professional organizations, the social and 
civic groups, the religious organizations and others, will also never be 
able to produce all the money, all the manpower, even all the direction 
that true Social Development requires. The ideal situation then, is one 
where the government and the non-governmental organizations join forces to 
attain levels of achievement which neither could have done by themselves.

 In The Bahamas we have enjoyed reasonable successes in our government-NGO 
partnerships. Organizations as diverse as the Red Cross, Family Planning 
Organizations, local and international civic organizations and the like, 
have worked along with the government on a wide range of programmes. Their 
endeavours cover all spheres of life in The Bahamas - from private school 
education to the management of residential care facilities for the young 
and the elderly; from community soup kitchen projects to light industries 
development; from sports programmes for the Disabled to counselling 
programmes for displaced young people; from trade unions to health 
promotional efforts.

 Of course, there is quite a great deal more to be done, and clear 
definitions and directions still need to be arrived at, but in the 
meantime, we think we have most of the ground work in palce and expect 
great success from our Social Development efforts in the future.

 At this point, we have come to appreciate the need for greater co-
ordination of our Social Development programmes in our attempt to effect a 
better definition of policies, a clearer understanding of objections, fair 
sharing of resources and maximizing of outcomes. In short, we realize the 
need for a council of sorts, which will operate on a national level.

 Recognizing the substantial contribution that religious organizations have 
made and are continuing to make towards the enhancement of our national 
life, the government took a conscious decision to involve the church in the 
Social Development process. As a result of extensive dialogue between the 
government and the Church during 1994, a National Council for Social 
Development was agreed to and a Steering Committee to lay the foundations 
for such a National Council has been formed and has been vigorously working 
to bring together various NGO interests to discuss and arrive at a 
programme of action for the Council.

 The Council will comprise representatives from, the religious 
organizations; the civil and social organizations; the business and trade 
union organization and the Government and will facilitate the building of 
social partnerships for the exchange of ideas; the development of policies; 
the sharing of resources; the creation and implementation of programmes and 
projects; and the enhancement of employment opportunities. We feel that 
participation from every sector of society towards this national collective 
endeavour is crucial for its success.

 The Bahamas welcomes the opportunity to participate in this World Summit 
on Social Development. Our challenge now is to commit to a plan of action 
that will ensure the total development of our citizens today, and 
generations tomorrow.

 With the firm commitment of the Government and in partnership with the 
National Council for Social Development, we feel that we are well poised to 
do so.