CuisinArt Golf Resort and Spa Ballroom was the venue for a thought-provoking lecture on the theme “Connecting the Dots: Patterns of Work, Health and the Future of Social Security in the Caribbean”.
The event was of particular interest to Anguilla as it called into question the relevance of the social security system in the island twenty years from now given, among other matters, the impact of automation, robots and artificial intelligence on the job market from which financial contributions are made to keep the system alive and functioning.
The presenter on Thursday, November 7, was Dr. Stanley Lalta, Research Fellow the Health Economics Unit (HEU) at the University of the West Indies Campus in Trinidad & Tobago. In continuing his intriguing presentation, he asked whether, with the growth of technology, drones and humanoids there would still, for example, be a need for large hospitals, other health facilities, child and general patient
care. He noted that various advances of automation could in the near future eliminate many jobs. “If the workforce becomes obsolete, what would happen to social security organisations?” he asked. “Could you roll back this tide?”
Dr Lalta noted that the original purpose of social security organisations could be traced to Sir Arthur Lewis, a Caribbean Economist, in the 1930s. Lewis was asked to examine what was happening with all the social unrests in the Caribbean such as labour unrests, riots and frictions in the 1930s. He was of the view that, because of the social conditions in the Caribbean, there was a need for governments to change their approach and one of the things they could do was to have a social programme. That was to include workmen’s compensation, regulations of hours of work and conditions of labour, the fixing of minimum wages and a scheme of social insurances for health, old age and unemployment. Dr. Lalta, the lecturer, said it was picked up by the famous British Moyne Commission Report of 1945 which also had much to say about social health insurance, now still being discussed in 2019.
Dr. Lalta pointed out that actuaries and analysts, who examined social security operations in the Caribbean, and made projections, had pointed out that difficult days were ahead. This was due to declining birth rates and the ageing and declining population. He asked what that meant for social security and what would happen to all its members whose benefits were not paid.
Dr. Lalta’s presentation, on various other related matters, was both mind-boggling and an eye-opener for the listeners many of whom had several burning questions for the presenter.
The distinguished lecture was a joint presentation by the Anguilla Social Security Board, represented by the Director, Mr. Timothy Hodge, and the UWI Open Campus represented by Dr. Phyllis Fleming-Banks, with the assistance of their office teams.
