Social protection in the English-speaking Caribbean

In recent years, issues concerning social protection (particularly pension systems) have become important items on the economic and political agenda in developed and developing countries alike, as demographic projections cast doubt on the financial sustainability of many pension systems currently in place. Substantive reform of pension systems in the Caribbean, however, has yet to materialize. In part, this may be a consequence of the limited amount of research that has been done on pension systems in the Caribbean, since this means that the authorities have not been able to refer to the literature to obtain information about how to tackle the issue of social protection in an environment with similar geographic and geo-climatic characteristics. This paper aims to fill this gap by examining the current status of public pension systems, analysing their recent performance and the challenges faced by schemes in the region, and suggesting ways forward.