Presenters

Paper

1.

Dominica is facing an uncertain economic future. The banana industry is in decline and greater emphasis is being put on the tourism sector to counterbalance this decline. Dominica’s tourism product is different to that of other Caribbean countries. Its difference and uniqueness create special challenges and opportunities. Can the tourism sector meet and exceed the expectations placed on it? The paper looks at the sector identifying some of the weaknesses and proposing some changes which will have a positive impact on the success of the tourism sector.

2.

Dr. Griffin Benjamin
Dr. George Mahy
Dr. Sharon Harvey
Dr. Liris Benjamin
Family Medical Clinic
Dominica

Combating child abuse is a major public health priority in Dominica. A study was conducted to investigate the psychological and social factors that are associated with the occurrence of child abuse in Dominica. The living arrangements of abused children and the drug use/abuse of their parents were identified as significant risk factors of child abuse. These findings can be used to guide policy makers in developing an integrative bio-psychosocial approach in managing the child abuse problem.

3.

Dr. Beverley Bryan
Dept of Educational Studies
UWI, Mona
&
Ms Rosalind Burnette
Dominica Teachers’ College

This study is about the language background and language use of a group of 80 Dominican teachers who are pursuing certification at the local teachers’ college. It investigates the language varieties they know, their attitudes towards them and their use of them in the Dominican classroom.

4.

Agriculture continues to be the leading contributor to GDP; however, in the last decade its contribution to GDP has declined. There is some danger that planners are associating this decline with the decline in the importance of agriculture as the engine of growth and development in small island states like Dominica. In its developmental strategy to become the Nature Island of the Caribbean, it is critical for planners to implement a zoning strategy that will preserve the ecosystems for the sustainable development of both agriculture and tourism.

5.

Dr. Susan Campbell
Sarah Lawrence College, NY

6.

Dr. Lennox Honychurch
Historian, Dominica

The paper shows how the location and layout of the villages of Dominica are a result of British surveys in the 1770s based on the volcanic landscape. The French-rooted "free-coloured" peasantry occupied the fertile but rugged zones between the large river valleys while the descendants of the enslaved population occupied lands on the fringes of the large estates located in these valleys. This pattern has determined today’s land settlement and social and cultural patterns.

7.

Historical problems and constraints which have consistently plagued agro-industrial development will be examined. An alternative approach providing new opportunities for the farming community to actively participate in small-scale agro-industrial development and simultaneously expand its agricultural base for processed and value-added foods will be discussed.

8.

Mr. Mc.Carthy Marie
Consultant, Dominica

The OECD is unhappy with the present legislative and administrative arrangements governing the offshore sector. The impression given is that the offshore financial sector in the Caribbean is a danger to the OECD economies because the sector could easily be taken over by criminal elements, particularly drug-mafias, to launder their ill-gotten gains. However, the paper contends that money laundering is not the main or real concern of the OECD countries; rather they are concerned with what is known as "harmful tax practices" or "unfair tax competition".

9.

Resource-poor rural households engage in diversified livelihood activities relying on own-labour investment. Economic diversification demands time-labour investment choices beyond skills acquisition or education levels. Local experience shows that the Time-Labour Complex suggests a Livelihood Hierarchy that may identify the most attractive investments for resource-poor rural households.

10.

Dr. Kay Polydore
Educator (Retired), Dominica

The paper examines the inputs related to and which best predict achievement in the secondary school sin Dominica. Of thirteen variables, seven were related to and five predicted achievement.

11.

Experience gained from the breaching of landslide dams and associated flooding in the Layou Valley in Dominica has shown the importance of implementing appropriate long-term risk reduction measures prior to such events so as to inform emergency preparedness and response plans and to ensure that these plans are executed in an efficient manner.

12.

Mr. Francis O. Severin
Office of Special Initiatives
UWI, Mona

In 1998, the Office of the Board for Undergraduate Studies commissioned a pilot study to ascertain Dominican employers’ perceptions of UWI graduates. That seminal investigation was the forerunner of a later, more extensive survey of both UWI graduates and their employers in the Non-Campus Countries. This paper reappraises the results of both studies with a view to examining the implications for entrepreneurial practice by the UWI yielded by those results and against the backdrop of the worldwide entrepreneurial trend in higher education.

13.

Dr. John B. Shepherd
Dr. Jan M. Lindsay
Dr. Mark V. Stasiuk
Seismic Research Unit
UWI, St. Augustine

14.

Donor-funded education projects can be of doubtful value unless there is a clear sense of local ownership of the project design and implementation. The Secondary Education Support Project funded by the Department for International Development is reviewed and the success and failures are used to provide lessons for the future and contribute towards the formulation of more effective project support for secondary education in Dominica.

15.

Prof. Bert J. Thomas
Caribbean Studies Program
Brooklyn College, CUNY

The paper analyzes the roles that oppositions are expected to play in parliamentary systems like the one found in Dominica. This is undertaken to determine whether the official opposition in Dominica has actually performed its assigned role of making Dominican democracy more viable. Some recommendations will be made with a view toward improving the Dominican democratic process, assuming that the loyal opposition will be allowed to play a viable role.

16.

In the light of the intention of the Government of Dominica to amalgamate its tertiary colleges into one institution, this paper outlines arguments that support the development and implementation of a full system of Quality Assurance and Audit for academic programmes in such an institution. The paper outlines efforts in several of the regional TLIs to establish quality assurance systems. Possible components and foci of such a system are suggested and the resource demands outlined.

17.

The paper will reflect on the steps already taken by the Government of Dominica to legislate and promote early childhood service development, and on the implications for policy raised by the findings of a survey of the quality of learning environments in a sample of early childhood centres. The paper will explore the critical areas the Government and the early childhood service providers need to address to make the "public-private partnership" for improved quality a reality.