Former Prime Minister of Jamaica James Patterson, in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, this week characterised the Caribbean countries as the sixth region of Africa.
"We share more than our common ancestry," Patterson said in comments at a conference that was part of the annual general meeting of the African Export-Import Bank Afreximbank, the continental trade bank. "The group leadership to which I belong came into office in a world where the international institutions determined the policies within which we were forced to operate."
After decades of following the dictates of Western-dominated multilateral agencies and financial institutions, many Global South countries, including in Africa and the Caribbean, are experiencing buyer's remorse. Rather than bring about development, those prescriptions are leaving their patients further mired in poverty and debt, leaving them nowhere near the promised land.
"The institutions that guide them were not created by us, and were not intended for the benefit and development of us," continued Patterson. "We have to devise together our economic strategies, not in accordance with traditional policy models created for others, which are not suited for our particular countries."
Comparing the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank to the United Nations, Patterson pointed out that it is not only at the Security Council that veto powers are exercised. They are also flexed in the board rooms of international financial institutions, where one country alone holds a 16.9 stake in the IMF, for instance, and loan disbursements are based on 80 approval by board members. He emphasised the need for Africans to not only control their resources but also deploy them for the continent's development.