From 2021 to 2025 I worked across several Caribbean Small Island Developing States as an independent consultant, in two parallel work streams: building routine and crisis-ready programme infrastructure with national authorities, and assessing regional initiatives on shock-responsive social protection. The countries covered include Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Montserrat and the Turks and Caicos Islands.
What I did
Building routine and crisis-ready programme infrastructure. In Saint Vincent and the Grenadines (2022–2024) and Anguilla (2024) I worked directly with national authorities on M&E frameworks, operational manuals and SOPs, beneficiary consultation tools, training for government officials, and grievance redress mechanisms for their major social protection schemes. The aim was to make systems that worked in normal times also workable under shock.
Assessing regional shock-responsiveness initiatives. In 2024 I served as programme assessor for a UN multi-agency initiative supporting shock-responsive social protection across Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands, Grenada and Saint Kitts and Nevis, designing and implementing the stakeholder engagement plan (interviews, focus groups, surveys) and producing recommendations on sustainability. In 2025 I conducted an independent outcome-level review of Result 3 of the regional ECHO-funded programme “Enhancing the shock-responsiveness of Education, Child Protection and Social Protection Systems in the Caribbean,” assessing UNICEF’s support to Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands, Montserrat and the Turks and Caicos Islands.
Outcomes
By 2025: M&E frameworks and operational manuals embedded in major social protection programmes in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Anguilla; grievance redress mechanisms in place in Anguilla; an independent assessment of a multi-agency SRSP initiative across four jurisdictions; and an outcome-level review of an ECHO-funded regional programme covering four UK Overseas Territories.
What this means
Caribbean SIDS face a specific pattern of social protection challenges: small populations, narrow fiscal bases, exposure to compounding shocks (hurricanes, pandemics, economic volatility), and SP systems that often work fine in normal times but struggle under every major shock. The work across these engagements isn’t about designing new systems; it’s about making the systems that exist work under pressure: written-down processes, trained staff, grievance channels, monitoring data, and assessments honest enough to be acted on.