BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, (CMC) — Caribbean countries need a more comprehensive means to measure progress and well-being, beyond traditional Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and “living above or below an international poverty line” assessments.

This is the assessment of panellists from the Caribbean and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) who met here on Wednesday ahead of the release of the Regional Human Development Report for the Caribbean 2016.

The report, which complements the Human Development Report for Latin America and the Caribbean 2016: Multidimensional Progress: Well-being beyond income, will also focus on particular challenges and opportunities for Small Island Developing States (SIDS).

“The key lesson of this decade is that hard inequalities, exclusions and vulnerabilities do not go away with more economic growth,” said UN Assistant Secretary General and UNDP Director for Latin America and the Caribbean Jessica Faieta.

“Redefining the very idea of progress from a multidimensional perspective will be critical for the Caribbean, particularly as we all move into a new global Post-2015 development era, with the upcoming Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).”

A UNDP report has noted that while the economic growth of the Latin America and the Caribbean region during the past 12 years brought 65 million people out of poverty and 95 million moved into the middle class, 200 million people remain in a vulnerable situation, risking falling into poverty if a major crisis hits.

Moreover, the Caribbean’s recent economic slowdown, largely due to the 2008-9 financial crisis and a growing debt-burden risk is reversing hard-won social and economic gains.

The report notes that the Latin American region is beginning to experience an increase in poverty and inequality rates, which call for enhanced social protection structures, particularly in light of the low projected growth for the years ahead.

“The elephant in the room is debt relief,” said Professor Compton Bourne, interim Executive Director of the Caribbean Centre for Money and Finance.

“Many Caribbean countries cannot cope with their heavy debt burdens; evidence of this is in the number of restructuring processes: it’s a burden that cannot be sustained; we need to put the question of debt relief sharply on the table.”