Dr. Keith Nurse

Dr. Keith Nurse is Director of the Shridath Ramphal Centre for International Trade Law, Policy and Services, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Barbados.

He has published several scholarly articles on the global political economy of the clothing, banana, tourism, climate change, copyright, and cultural/creative industries. He has also published on migration, diaspora, HIV/AIDS, youth, gender, and poverty. He is the co-editor of the forthcoming book entitled The Global Economic Crisis and the Developing World: Implications and Prospects for Recovery and Growth (forthcoming Routledge, 2012).

Dr. Nurse is one of the founding members of the recently established World Economics Association. He has served on the advisory board of several international organizations such as the World Trade Organization Chairs programme, the OECD Knowledge Networks and Markets project, and the ACP Intra-Regional Observatory on Migration. He also serves on the board of academic institutions such as the Caribbean Competitiveness Centre; Trade Negotiations and Governance, University of Geneva; and Technology Governance, University of Tallinn, Estonia.

He currently holds the WTO Chair at the University of the West Indies. He is also the executive producer of the recently launched documentary Forward Home: The Power of the Caribbean Diaspora and chairman of CaribbeanTales Worldwide Distribution.



Dr. Michael Witter, Professor Neville Duncan, and Dr. Keith Nurse, all eminent faculty of the University of the West Indies, will jointly present in a plenary session on the subject: "Innovation Governance and Small States: Strategic Opportunities in Energy, Food and Health."

Summarising their topic, the presenters explain that over the last two to three decades Caribbean countries have become less competitive, as exemplified by a decline in export diversification and increased concentration in exports and markets. Most countries have extremely high levels of trade specialisation, usually in the export of low value-added raw materials, commodities, manufacturing (for example, clothing and electronics) and services (for instance, tourism and financial services) which have had declining terms of trade, and fetch low (and volatile) prices in global markets.

Further, it is increasingly recognized that Caribbean countries need to improve their innovation systems in order to compete globally. In tandem, there is rising acceptance that innovation systems should also respond to the demands of Caribbean societies in terms of poverty alleviation and sustainability goals. To achieve these multiple goals, specific strategies need to be in place in order to ensure that innovation efforts increase competitiveness as well as respond to environmental impacts and the distribution effects.

The overall aim of the paper is to explore areas of innovation governance that can make a definitive and measurable contribution to the thinking and planning on how to reduce key Caribbean vulnerabilities/fragilities and/or enhance strategic export and growth opportunities in the contemporary and emerging global context which have a discernible impact on sustainability and social inclusion. The paper explores, in particular, areas related to health, food and energy, given the region’s high dependence on imports and the quantum of GDP shares in these areas. Emergent trends in the global economy and in the climate change agenda suggest that these areas of the economy are likely to experience higher prices and so present increased risks for import-dependent economies like the Caribbean region.