Turks and Caicos Islands

4.8. Community Livelihoods, Gender, Poverty and Development
Where disasters take place in societies governed by power relations based on gender, age or social
class, their impact will also reflect these relations and as a result, people’s experience of the
disaster will vary.
4.8.1. Background
Madhavi Ariyabandu (ECLAC, UNIFEM and UNDP, 2005)
Overview of Livelihoods, Poverty, Gender and Development Issues in the Turks and Caicos
Islands
Tourism is a major employer on Providenciales with both nationals and non-nationals working in this
sector. However, the industry is dominated by all-inclusive properties which provide a full range of services
which makes visitors less inclined to venture beyond the hotel property. This factor, coupled with a small
natural resource base locally, limits the number of employment or business opportunities outside of the
hotels that can also stand to benefit from the tourism market (e.g. private taxi operators, vendors).
Therefore, while tourism is a major employer, self-employment (especially for small and medium-sized
enterprises) within the industry can be constrained. Unskilled residents who are unable to secure a job
within the tourism (or other) industry, therefore stand a greater chance of remaining unemployed and
without a source of income, thereby making them more vulnerable (Kairi Consultants Limited, 2000a).
The growth and expansion of tourism on the island of Providenciales, and spin-off effects in other sectors
such as construction resulted in significant demands for labour on that island, which were met by an influx
of persons from other islands within the Turks and Caicos Islands, as well as other North America and other
Caribbean countries. Inflows of immigrants were particularly vast from Haiti, and the Dominican Republic to
a lesser extent, seeking work opportunities, refuge and better living conditions in Providenciales at a time
when the U.S. Immigration Policy and enforcement practices became more exclusive. While some
immigrants have been successful in securing some form of work, many others remain without a source of
income, and live in deplorable conditions (in some cases, conditions comparable to or worse than where
they originated). This has given rise to what is referred to as “imported poverty” (Haitians account for just
over one-third of the nation’s poor), and these groups are extremely vulnerable to any physical or
economic shocks (Kairi Consultants Limited, 2000a).
Persons who are poor stand to lose significantly in the event of a personal or national crisis. Available
poverty statistics derived from the last national poverty assessment in 1999/2000 indicated that
approximately a quarter of the population in the Turks and Caicos Islands were living in poverty and slightly
more than half of the nation’s poor were non-nationals. Poverty in locals was rooted in limited educational
qualifications and the resulting inability to move beyond meagre-paying jobs. However, based on an overall
declining trend in the rate of poverty from the earliest research, current poverty levels should be less acute
than the 1999/2000 statistics, owing in part to further economic development and the implementation of
social mechanisms specifically to alleviate poverty (Kairi Consultants Limited, 2000a).
Although the 1999/2000 statistics show slightly more poor females than males, gender does not correlate
to poverty or the likelihood of being poor. However, as seen in other Caribbean territories, there is a higher
rate of unemployment amongst women, when compared to men, and there are more female-headed single
parent households within the lowest economic quintiles than the higher quintiles, with implications for a
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