Making Waves

Making Waves

28

A Caribbean Social Innovation Guide

Country Profile Snapshots

01 . Understanding Social Innovation in the Caribbean

Barbados

Barbados represents a unique “paradox of potential” within the Caribbean social innovation landscape. On one hand, the island boasts exceptional human capital, a highly educated population, robust digital infrastructure, and an increasingly progressive policy focus on the green energy transition and the blue economy. On the other hand, the ecosystem operates as structurally “over-trained but under-resourced.” Local change-makers do not lack ideas or talent; rather, they are constrained by gaps in support infrastructure and traditional financing models.

organisations to operate within existing business or non-profit structures. Grassroots innovators, particularly women and young people, must also navigate property-based collateral requirements and systemic funding instability (“overhead starvation”), where funding supports programme delivery but not the people and systems needed to sustain organisations. This results in “formal inclusion but practical exclusion,” meaning that people have the right to participate but often lack the support to do so effectively. Despite these challenges, Barbadians continue to develop innovative partnerships and community-led solutions that strengthen social, economic and climate resilience.

The absence of a dedicated legal framework for social enterprises forces purpose-driven