By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Chief Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

DAYS after a US government report flagged “growing concerns” about governance in The Bahamas, a prominent professor is calling on citizens to “apply pressure” on the government to deliver long-promised reforms.

Dr Ian Strachan, a researcher at UB, said he hopes to spark that momentum through the Future of Democracy Conference, a four-day event bringing together activists, scholars and concerned citizens to discuss democracy, inclusivity and political representation.

His comments follow the release of the US government’s latest investment climate statement, which again criticised The Bahamas for failing to fully implement anti-corruption laws needed to strengthen transparency and accountability.

Critics have long accused the Davis administration of sidelining good governance measures, underfunding the Freedom of Information Unit and the Office of the Ombudsman, and falling short of best practices under the Public Procurement Act.

Yesterday, Dr Strachan told The Tribune: “We know that in election cycles, political parties promise reforms like campaign finance reform and freedom of information and ombudsman and procurement and all these things, but then when they actually get in power, they don’t actually implement and give these things the full resources that they deserve, that they require, etc.

“So we know that the citizen has a role to play in applying pressure, applying pressure, shaping opinion, setting expectations, and so that’s what we’re trying to do.”

Dr Strachan warned that government inaction and weak transparency fuel corruption, which in turn, he said, drives up living costs and undermines public services.

This, he added, means less funding for nurses, teachers and critical infrastructure such as roads and schools.

“I really hope and pray that citizens become more and more vocal and more engaged and just cast your vote, use your voice, write letters, write petitions, go and talk to your representatives. Demonstrate if you have to, boycott if you have to. Unfortunately, that’s just the way it works. That’s the only way democracy delivers,” he said.

The conference, held October 1st – 4th, is free to the public and being held at the University of the Bahamas.

Yesterday’s session featured several speakers, including researcher Jamal Archer, who presented his research proposal on childhood trauma among criminal offenders raised in single-mother households.

Mr Archer told attendees the purpose of his research is to gain a broader understanding of offenders raised in single-mother households.

He said he plans to use a convenient sample of around 30 male offenders and will conduct a cross-sectional survey administered in a secure facility.

He noted that previous research shows a positive relationship between female-headed households and violent crime.

Citing past data, he said that in 1987, an estimated 64 percent of households in New Providence were headed by single parents, most of them women.

He also highlighted the impact of the “contract worker” migration between 1943 and 1965, when over 30,000 Bahamian men moved to the US for farm work.

He said their absence contributed to a sharp rise in single-mother household and weakened paternal authority, calling it a “significant point in Bahamian history.”

“I believe that that the return of those men and the way they saw the world after living in the US South, it impacted and it influenced Bahamians culture tremendously. We saw elevated male homicide rates, poor educational outcome among males, and an increase in child or childbirth outside of marriage,” he said.

Mr Archer also discussed a possible link between the expansion of welfare systems and the rise of single motherhood.

He noted that in the US during the 1960s and 70s when welfare programmes grew, single motherhood increased sharply.

He added that a similar pattern appeared in The Bahamas in the 1960s, when the Ministry of Social Services was established, coinciding with a rise in single-parent households.

“The question is,” he said, “did welfare incentivise the rise in single motherhood, or was it that the rise in single motherhood had incentivised welfare, which led me to question, what are the links between the welfare system, single motherhood and crime?”

Citing researcher Michael D Tanner, Mr Archer said welfare expansion in the US has been linked to higher rates of out-of-wedlock births and increased family instability.

“Some of what Tanner is saying here stems from US culture,” he said. “Now, the same may not be true for The Bahamas, but we don’t know because this is not an area that has been investigated but in the US, we know that, for example, the social service or the welfare system, it incentivised this idea of mothers continuing to have children within a single parent family.”