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The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the working of the Ombudsman offices in six developing democracies in the Commonwealth Caribbean in order to assess/evaluate the degree or extent of effectiveness of these offices. It aims to look at them from both contemporary and evolutionary perspectives. Although it focuses on the Commonwealth Caribbean, some references to other parts of the world are also made for a better and comparative understanding of the Ombudsman institution.

The paper is based mainly on archival research. Original/primary as well as secondary sources – old, recent and contemporary – have been used. Random interviews and observation have also been useful sources of information.

On the one hand, this study identifies various factors and related issues that make the performance of the Ombudsman institution difficult and problematic in the Commonwealth Caribbean; and, on the other, it also identifies some remedial measures for effectively dealing with these problems. Although the Ombudsman office has a number of inadequacies, it plays a fairly useful role in protecting and promoting human rights, in redressing grievances especially of the “small” people, and thus in contributing to good governance, transparency and democratic values.

There is considerable dearth of literature on this institution in the Caribbean. This study, at least partially, fills the gap.

The adoption of the remedial measures identified will improve the performance and the effectiveness of this institution in varying degrees. These measures/recommendations will also facilitate the reform efforts of the policy makers who will find them useful.

The paper, based on original research, makes a significant contribution to the understanding of the Ombudsman institution.

With the advent of the FATF blacklist and the US FinCen advisories, the problem of perception and reality has been exacerbated. The international financial centres (IFCs) claim that the legislation and infrastructure are in place, and that money laundering, which still takes place largely in the metropolitan centres, is under control in their jurisdictions. The mainland countries perceive that money laundering is taking place in the IFCs. The situation is not unlike the story of two blindfolded men touching an elephant: the first held the tail and thought that it was something dry and sinewy; the second touched the tip of the trunk and thought the creature was something moist and flexible. The truth was somewhere in the middle.

This paper aims to map key strategic concerns that Commonwealth Caribbean States will face in combating economic crimes and strengthening financial integrity in the post-pandemic era.

Horizon scanning was used to conduct a qualitative policy analysis of key regulatory developments in international anti-money laundering and combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFTP) and tax governance, from the perspective of Commonwealth Caribbean countries.

This paper finds that the COVID-19 pandemic might widen several fault lines, along the Global North/South axis, in international AML/CFTP and tax regulatory governance. These include the “sustainable development” gap in AML/CFTP norm-making; making the Financial Action Task Force fit-for-purpose; renewed campaigns against “harmful tax competition”; and international commitment to scaling up technical assistance to combat economic crimes in developing countries. It questions the sustainability of the prevailing “levelling the playing field” regulatory approach to AML/CFTP and tax matters and whether serious consideration ought not to be given to mainstreaming “differential treatment” in international AML/CFTP and tax standards, for resource-strapped Caribbean countries.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this paper is the first attempt to assess the strategic policy risks and challenges that will arise from balancing economic recovery and fighting economic crimes by small and vulnerable Commonwealth Caribbean States in the post-pandemic era.

This paper aims to investigate the potential challenges that governments in the Commonwealth Caribbean are likely to face combating crimes facilitated by the dark Web.

The “lived experience” methodology guided by a contextual systematic literature review was used to ground the investigation of the research phenomena in the researchers’ collective experiences working in, living in and engaging in research with governments in the Commonwealth Caribbean.

The two major findings emerging from the analysis are that jurisdictional and technical challenges are producing major hindrances to the creation of an efficient and authoritative legislative framework and the building of the capacity of governments in the Commonwealth Caribbean to confront the technicalities that affect systematic efforts to manage problems created by the dark Web.

The findings indicate the urgency that authorities in the Caribbean region must place on reevaluating their administrative, legislative and investment priorities to emphasize cyber-risk management strategies that will enable their seamless and wholesome integration into this digital world.

The research aids in developing and extending theory and praxis related to the problematization of the dark Web for governments by situating the experiences of Small Island Developing States into the ongoing discourse.

There are several small territories in the Caribbean that have not yet gained their independence and remain under the control of a metropolitan power. These include the territories governed by the United Kingdom (UK) and the Netherlands. This chapter analyses the way in which education policy and reform are enacted in these quite unusual circumstances – with pressures and influences both from the territories and their respective metropoles. The chapter is constructed around two interlinked parts. The first considers the broader political and economic relationships that exist, and the place that education has within them. Both the UK and the Netherlands use language, such as, “partnership,” “prosperity,” and “renewal” to describe their approach to the territories, including in relation to the education sector. However, both governments have used different mechanisms to facilitate change – the British have a slightly more detached approach, while the Dutch are more hands-on. This has important implications for the way in which education is managed in their territories and the consequences that result – and these issues are explored further in the second part of the chapter. By focusing particularly on the Dutch BES (Bonaire, Saint Eustatius, and Saba) islands and Bermuda (a UK Overseas Territory), the chapter traces the contours of recent education reforms, and evaluates the advantages and disadvantages of the particular approaches taken. The more flexible approach of the UK is perhaps preferable, but here too concerns are raised about neocolonialism and the lack of sensitivity when it comes to local norms and practices.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the need for good corporate governance (CG) as one of the mechanisms to combat corporate misconduct and, by extension, to encourage economic growth and development, with special emphasis on Jamaica, which not only has seen the greatest financial sector meltdown in the region, but has also seen the greatest response to the need for CG initiatives.

For the past 20 years, CG has been at the forefront of discussions, legislation and moral suasion regarding corporate transparency and accountability, especially in the wake of spectacular scandals from the Maxwell debacle in the United Kingdom (1992), to Enron in the USA (2001), to the world economic crisis (2008). Codes have been adopted and legislation drafted to meet the concerns regarding corporate abuse, which have not only had an impact on the corporations and their shareholders, but also on a wider group of stakeholders, which includes, in some cases, the countries in which they operate. Not only have these scandals rocked the developed world, but corporate misconduct has taken an especially debilitating toll on developing economies, such as those found in the Commonwealth Caribbean. The cost of corporate misconduct in the region has included government bailouts, loss of jobs and loss of confidence in the markets. These, in turn, have had some negative impact on the development of many of the countries, which includes slow, stagnant or negative economic growth.

The attention to CG in the Commonwealth Caribbean has grown tremendously in the past 10 years by the introduction of codes and legislation with a focus on transparency and accountability in accordance with international standards. The challenge now appears to be the need to link these initiatives with the anti-corruption project. This may be best achieved through the acknowledgment of the need for the private sector to play a greater role in the prevention of corruption through CG initiatives. Put another way, there may be need for an increased focus on the demand side of bribery and corruption rather than simply on the supply side. Finally, the development of emerging economies relies heavily on the stemming of corruption and mismanagement both in the public sector and the private sector.

The original value of this paper is the development of CG principles in the region.

In the Caribbean context, as in any other developing or underdeveloped country or region that considers tourism as a viable socio‐economic factor, the development of leisure and recreational facilities should be seriously considered. However, planning for these facilities should take into consideration the participation of not only the international tourist but also his domestic counterpart.

This chapter examines the characteristics, challenges and prospects of environmental governance and participation in issues pertaining to human health and the ocean in the CARICOM Caribbean region.

Utilising the fisheries sector – one of the principal economic, social and environmental drivers relating to the marine environment in the Caribbean region – we discuss the concepts of hierarchical governance in contradistinction to heterarchical governance. This is done through a socio-legal analysis of the predominant top-down model of governance, a discussion of the successes and shortcomings of bottom-up governance and a proposal for more inclusive participation methodologies in the region.

While the paradigm of new collaborative environmental governance was birthed in the aftermath of the 1985 Brundtland Commission Report, and moreso since the 1992 Rio Conference, this analysis will show that governance of the marine resource, and consequently how the individual is juxtaposed within this matrix, has not shifted from a position of hierarchy to one of heterarchy, as prescribed by the governance literature. Indeed, the structures for governance remain largely top-down in nature and while many states have begun to embrace more inclusive and participatory methodologies many of these interventions will need to be bolstered if the governance of the region’s marine resources is to progress from traditional top-down to more inclusive and representative typologies.

These concepts, when applied to the subject of environmental governance, will demonstrate that there needs to be an improvement in participatory environmental governance in the CARICOM region if the integrity of human health and the ocean is to be maintained. Importantly, while these methodologies strive for the formulation prescribed in Principle 10 of the 1992 Rio Declaration, and most famously exemplified in the 1998 Aarhus Convention, issues of environmental advocacy, transparency, inequality and justice need to be reconceptualised, if the region is to see prudent governance of the interface between humans and the ocean.

This research takes established concepts on the issue of locus standi in the common law legal tradition and juxtaposes it within the emerging paradigm of ecohealth and environmental governance. This conceptual framework has identified both the prospects and problems of environmental governance in the Caribbean region and may provide the basis for further research as well as more inclusive and sustainable environmental governance.

For the islands of the Caribbean, tourism is more than an industry to be managed. Significantly, it is a socioeconomic phenomenon that if managed effectively can address some of the challenges facing the region. Tourism higher education plays a critical role in preparing graduates to shape an improved Caribbean tourism society and in performing research. Over the years, its tourism education has been framed by “Western models” that have not taken sufficient account of the Caribbean reality. The focus of this chapter is to define Caribbean education and to propose a tourism higher education strategy for the implementation in part of this education.