Preface

• Author: Compton Bourne
• Profession: President, Caribbean Development Bank, Professor Emeritus, University of the West Indies
• Pages: 9-11

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The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB)

is pleased to be one of the sponsors of the

highly important International Conference on

Governance, Conflict Analysis and Conflict

Resolution organized by the University of

Guyana and Clark Atlanta University. When

approached, we not only readily agreed in

principle, but encouraged our development

partners to do likewise.

We have done so in keeping with our

policy of institutional strengthening of

knowledge institutions in the Bank’s borrowing

member countries (BMCs). In our view, this

conference and the research and training

programmes intrinsically linked to it have the

potential for making the University of Guyana

a more effective institution for human resource

development in Guyana. As President Jagdeo

noted in an address at the University of

Guyana, the CDB will soon participate in other

institutional strengthening activities at the

university. Furthermore, the support for this

conference is yet another instance of its long-

standing tradition of supporting conferences,

seminars and workshops as a means of

fostering the development of intellectual

capacity and dissemination of knowledge on

major issues pertinent to economic growth,

socioeconomic development and poverty

reduction in BMCs.

There are two rather more cogent reasons.

One of these reasons is the central importance

the Bank attaches to the quality of governance

in strategies for socioeconomic development

and poverty reduction in Caribbean countries.

Preface

The quality of governance is an influence on

the effectiveness of investment and other

development interventions. In this regard, it is

an important enabling factor. The

manifestation of good governance in terms

of political freedoms, human rights, and

participatory decision-making systems is also

seen as a laudable development objective in

its own right.

In 2001, the Bank prepared a Policy

Paper on Governance and Institutional

Development. The paper defines governance

as:

the process by which power and

authority are shared and exercised in

society, and influence exercised over

policies and decisions concerning

human development and well-being.

[It goes further to define good

governance as] governance which

emphasises equitable, efficient and

responsible management of public and

corporate resources for the benefit of

all stakeholders.

It is the Bank’s view that good governance

can assist in eradicating poverty by improving

the access of the poor to services; by facilitating

and promoting growth and expansion of

income-earning opportunities; by promoting

sound and equitable resource allocation; by

encouraging stakeholders to participate in the

decision-making process and in the

implementation of policies, programmes and

projects; and by fostering tolerance of diversity

and respect for human rights.

Governance criteria are explicitly

incorporated in all the Bank’s lending