NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Tanya McFall-Major, a graduate of the University of the Bahamas and alumna of the Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative (YLAI), launched a foreign language training institute in Nassau. Her goal: give Bahamians the ability to speak another language and compete successfully in the global marketplace. McFall-Major is one of a dozen Bahamian entrepreneurs who have participated in the YLAI program and used their creativity to advance society.
Together, we want to create more stories like hers. Too few aspiring change-makers and entrepreneurs in the Americas can realize their dreams because inequitable public institutions, corruption, insecurity, poor healthcare, the effects of climate change, and limited access to financing stifle their ideas before they can get off the ground.
President Biden will welcome the leaders of the Western Hemisphere to Los Angeles on June 8-10 for the Ninth Summit of the Americas, with a simple but ambitious goal: help the entire hemisphere – including the United States – realize its potential as a region where democracy delivers for everyone, and people can realize their aspirations no matter where they live.
Democracy and markets have delivered extraordinary gains for the Americas over the past 40 years, but many people still face challenges and tragedy: the family in The Bahamas who lost their loved ones and livelihoods to a tropical storm; the mother grieving her son, who was lost to gangs in El Salvador; the Haitian family fleeing lawlessness and poverty; the farmer in Paraguay who lost his crop to drought; the parents in Oklahoma who lost their son to illicit fentanyl. We can and must do better for all people in the Americas.
The Summit, while a meeting of governments, centers on the bedrock of all our societies: our people. COVID-19 has claimed more than 2.7 million lives in our hemisphere and inflicted massive economic harm – job losses, declining income, and rising poverty. The economic crisis exacerbated the region’s historic inequities, as its ripple effects hit marginalized communities hardest. Job losses have been especially high for women, younger workers, the less educated, and those who work in the informal sector. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine raised the price of essential goods throughout the Americas, from fertilizer to wheat to petroleum. Our shared prosperity depends on the economic recovery and advancement of middle-class growth in the United States and in every country in the region. We remain inextricably linked with the peoples and the economies of the Americas. What happens in the region impacts all of us at home.
We have many tasks ahead. Through the Summit, we must commit to a green and equitable economic recovery, resilience in our health systems, and revitalized democracies. The COVID-19 pandemic revealed gaps in our public health systems we must work together to overcome. We must bolster transparent and accountable governance, promote and protect human rights, the rule of law, social inclusion, and gender, racial, and ethnic equity. We can generate inclusive prosperity by building a digital economy, but doing so requires our commitment to providing secure and reliable telecommunications networks and universal broadband Internet access. Harnessing the hemisphere’s tremendous clean energy potential can drive economic development and mitigate the climate crisis, but it, too, requires our investment in energy-saving technologies to achieve net-zero emissions; wind, solar, bioenergy, and hydroelectricity; and international efforts to scale-up renewable energy. We must also commit to reducing deforestation, ecosystem destruction, and plastic pollution in our oceans. Many nations throughout the hemisphere are already experiencing severe impacts from the climate crisis. We must commit to implementing national adaptation plans, building resilience across sectors, establishing monitoring and evaluation systems, sharing information, and educating the next generation of policymakers.
Progress on these fronts will restore citizens’ faith that democracy can deliver for the people. But these tangible improvements are not enough. We must also focus on the basic responsibilities of government: providing security, healthcare, education, infrastructure, and the rule of law. We will do this by investing in our people through education; building and strengthening more inclusive institutions; protecting and reinforcing the critical role that independent civil society plays, and honoring the inherent human dignity of each individual.
The future of our hemisphere remains bright. The Biden-Harris Administration will seize the opportunities at the Ninth Summit of the Americas to help ensure all Americans across the entire hemisphere share in it.
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