The National Youth Council of Dominica(NYCD) on Thursday held a post budget panel discussion to bring together young people to discuss the 2023/2024 budget presentation.
The panelists were Stephanie Pascal, Emmana Jeffers, Ashma McDougall, Davidson Edwards and Phael Lander. It was moderated by Wendy Wallace and Keanu Winston.
Immediate Past President of the NYCD Ashma McDougall commented that there is evidence within the budget that suggestions made by the council at the pre budget consultations were listened to and added in the budget at times verbatim, however, there is much to be desired.
Referring to the budget, McDougall said, “The proposals are aligned with raising employment and output prospects in the medium term but in my own perspective, the policies were fairly targeted and limited in scope…and that again goes back to that absence of data that exists in Dominica…I think there is a lack of substantive evidence and data driving policies which everybody has mentioned already…”.
Budding Economist Stephanie Pascal and Trade and Investment Specialist Emmana Jeffers both shared similar sentiments that the budget is vague and lacks concrete information as to how the strategies are going to be implemented, why these areas and strategies were targeted in the first place.
Pascal said, “For me the only part of the budget that was really data driven… for the most part was agriculture …They included a lot of numbers, they included a lot of statistics. In the other areas of the budget that was significantly lacking and for me, an area that I was particularly disappointed in was tourism”.
Similarly, Jeffers said, “…the budget was not very data driven and with a heavy focus on digital technology, I believe…that takes away from one of the advantages of digitizing an economy…So that’s just an example of how vague some of the details are within this budget”.
The panelists as well as those in attendance face to face and virtually praised the NYCD for such a timely discussion and agreed that such discussions require more time than the two hours initially … by the Council. Persons also praised the panelists for their in depth analyses and well researched, well thought of contributions.
