Our deadly implementation deficits

Follow current national, regional and international dynamics, even superficially, and you’d come across ubiquitous reference to “implementation deficits” as a risk factor in the transition of ideas into lived reality.

For instance, the climate crisis - especially relative to our experiences as small island developing countries of the Caribbean - is replete with instances in which the big countries that have contributed most to the challenges posed by carbon emissions habitually renege on commitments to alleviate the impacts of human-caused (anthropogenic) climate change.

Regionally, some obligations under the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas suffer at the hands of grand pronouncements not reaching the stage of on-the-ground action in the respective member states. True, there is redress through the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) – set up to adjudicate on breaches of the Treaty. But should it always come to this?

In any event, and as an aside, I am of the view that insufficient use of the CCJ in its “original jurisdiction" to adjudicate disputes over implementation of the Treaty has allowed significant breaches including free movement of skills provisions, and the meaning of “single market” conditions to pass unpunished.

On another occasion, I can speak specifically about Guyana’s local content regulations in the energy sector and, in T&T, of official breaches of acceptable practice when it comes to the free movement of regional skills.

The other arena in which we witness implementation deficits is exemplified in the number of times stated good intentions are never converted into consistent, effective actions.

To be fair, to speak of a deficit does not automatically reference malicious intent, especially in this latter context. It is not that our leaders, at all levels from national to community, do not mean well or simply do not care.

This is how political parties get to power and stay there – through demonstrations of good intent. People won’t vote for politicians who say or suggest from the start that they do not plan to address a problem of violent crime or minimise the impacts of a pandemic, for instance.

It is also fair to assume that people interested in wider political or even communal support must first display a willingness to get things done for the benefit of everyone. The problem arises when there is a gap between ideas and full realisation of plans arising from such ideas.

There is a significant amount of literature that explores the underpinnings of such deficits or shortfalls. I am however most convinced by the assertion that in too many instances, process takes on a life of its own and eventually overrides anticipated outcomes.

It cannot be, for example, that a severe shortage of fire tenders in T&T has been ignored and categorised as a low priority. Additionally, and for certain, this is not a belated realisation by everyone from the prime minister to politicians across the aisle, to senior public servants, to community leaders.

A few years ago, while examining the phenomenon, Lois Parkes of the Caribbean Centre For Development Administration (CARICAD) identified some key elements of a successful implementation process: The Idea, Leadership, Research, Stakeholder Engagement, Conceptual Design, Approval, Project Planning and Implementation, Team Development, and Strategic Communication.

While all of this cannot be denied as major benchmarks for the success of projects, they at the same time prescribe processes already well known to our legendary Caribbean bureaucracies. Sometimes a pothole in the road simply needs to be filled with anything before something else happens.

In a region where everything is a priority, people need to simply get going on the immediate, apparent needs as a matter of urgency. For where along Parkes’ continuum, for example, remains the acquisition of fire tenders to address emergencies in T&T?

What do we tell the family of Zaya and Kemba Morris about all this? On what were the minister, the permanent secretary, and the fire-fighting hierarchy otherwise too busy or under-resourced to address this important need? At what stage of the process?

When these people in leadership go home after a day at work, on what tasks do they tell their families they were so busy? At what stage of the process had been the procurement of fire tenders? Where on the project spreadsheet was this priority issue? Where was the vigilance of civil society and political activism – the “stakeholder engagement”?

There is a deficit in our implementation agenda that creates a yawning chasm between initial realisation/idea and achievement of goals. It sometimes proves to be deadly. Let’s fix this, please.