The issues national leadership should see on one screen.
Fourteen policy questions organised around public safety, household security, fiscal resilience, delivery and long-term national capacity. The first five belong on the top screen. Cost of living is the test running through all of them.
Five issues selected for urgency, leverage and national exposure
Leadership focus
Five issues that can change the national outlook.
This is an institutional priority screen, not a party scorecard. It asks where national leadership can remove a serious risk, protect scarce fiscal room or unlock progress across several ministries.
Household test≈18.3%calculated cumulative price-level change from official annual inflation rates, 2020–2025
A low current inflation rate means prices are rising more slowly. It does not restore the purchasing power lost during the earlier increase. Every major policy should show its effect on the costs and incomes households actually face.
Fourteen national issues · grouped by the result they protect
National priority dossiers
The questions that deserve sustained leadership attention.
Published SLPA briefs sit beside newer priority dossiers and a time-limited regional watch. Every card begins with the public result, the measures leaders need and an initial policy direction.
Showing 14 of 14 issues
01Published research
Policy question
Firearm violence and the justice pipeline
How can Saint Lucia reduce lethal firearm harm and move serious cases through the justice system faster, fairly and lawfully?
Public safety is one connected chain. A delay in intelligence, investigation, forensics, prosecution, witness protection or trial weakens the whole result.
Leadership measures
Shootings, homicides and firearm share
Investigation-to-DPP time and charge rate
Oldest serious cases and remand duration
Initial policy direction
Use one public safety scorecard across prevention, policing and justice, with equal protection, clear legal safeguards and named owners at every handoff.
How much room remains for public investment after debt service, refinancing needs and fixed commitments?
The IMF projects public debt near 77% of GDP over the medium term and says current policy would miss the regional 60% target by 2035. A primary surplus can still sit beside tight cash flow and rising interest pressure.
Leadership measures
Debt service and interest as shares of revenue
Financing secured versus due over 12 and 24 months
Baseline, tourism/oil and CIP-plus-hurricane scenarios
Initial policy direction
Publish a medium-term fiscal framework, debt-maturity calendar, tax-expenditure register and three shock cases before major new commitments are locked in.
How can Saint Lucia protect programme integrity and mobility while preparing for a sharp fall in Citizenship by Investment receipts?
CIP supports development finance, while visa rules and external regulation can change the programme’s value quickly. Strong due diligence needs equally strong audited public reporting and a replacement-revenue plan.
Leadership measures
Applications, approvals, denials and revocations
Audited gross and net receipts with source-and-use reporting
Mobility-risk milestones and revenue replacement coverage
Initial policy direction
Pair regional regulatory reform with annual audited source-and-use accounts, public compliance milestones and plans for 25%, 50% and 100% revenue loss.
What operating plan can deliver reliable water from catchment to household while protecting basic use?
WASCO reported Patience about 80% complete on 29 July and set new procurement or mobilisation milestones for Theobalds, the John Compton Dam raw-water pipeline and the Northern Pipeline. These projects now need one public delivery view tied to service zones.
Leadership measures
Service hours and outage duration by supply zone
Production, demand, storage and non-revenue water
Repair time, water quality and tariff burden
Initial policy direction
Adopt a Water Reliability Compact with zone-level service standards, a loss-reduction programme, drought triggers and transparent project delivery.
Which public projects will become usable services on time, at what final cost, and what is blocking the rest?
A Caribbean Development Bank evaluation found repeated constraints across procurement, contractors, land, preconditions, staffing and inter-agency coordination. Physical progress alone cannot show service readiness.
Leadership measures
Original and current cost and completion date
Physical progress and operational-readiness gates
Critical blocker, accountable official and next decision
Initial policy direction
Publish one major-project register and require every project to pass design, land, procurement, finance, staffing, operations and maintenance gates.
Are wages, pensions and public support keeping up with the costs households cannot avoid?
Annual inflation slowed to 0.7% in 2025, while compounding the official annual rates from 2020 through 2025 implies a general price level about 18.3% higher. Slower price growth does not reverse the earlier increase.
Leadership measures
Low-income essentials basket and real household income
Food, rent, power, water and transport burden
Eligibility, reach, adequacy and end date of each relief measure
Initial policy direction
Publish an essentials basket beside headline CPI, test whether tax relief reaches shelf prices and separate temporary support from durable income gains.
Can every major health investment show that staff, medicines, diagnostics, referral routes and finance are ready?
A 14-station dialysis unit opened at St Jude on 28 July, while full commissioning missed its July target and no new date was announced. OKEU also named patient flow, revenue, technology and workforce as current pressures. The operating question now spans the full health network.
Leadership measures
Service-by-service commissioning and safety sign-off
Emergency, diagnostic, surgical and referral waits
Staffing, medicine stockouts and avoidable admissions
Initial policy direction
Publish a service-readiness ledger for St Jude and a UHC scorecard that joins primary care, hospitals, referrals, quality and financing.
Which enforcement, engineering, transport and trauma-care actions can reduce fatal and serious road crashes now?
Sixteen road fatalities had been reported by late July 2026. Public appeals should sit beside a crash-intelligence map, visible enforcement, safer-road treatment and a clear account of the health and economic burden.
Leadership measures
Fatal and serious injuries by road, time, age and crash factor
Speed, impairment and restraint enforcement activity and results
High-risk corridor fixes, ambulance response and trauma outcomes
Initial policy direction
Approve a 90-day action plan with a public crash map, targeted speed and drink-driving enforcement, a dated demerit-system decision, rapid engineering fixes and quarterly outcome reporting.
Are more Saint Lucians entering stable work with rising income, and which groups are still being left behind?
One unemployment rate cannot show participation, discouraged workers, job quality, gender gaps, district gaps or the path from school and training into paid work.
Leadership measures
Employment, participation, underemployment and real wages
Youth NEET, first-income time and 12-month retention
Attendance, mathematics, TVET completion and placement
Initial policy direction
Connect education, training and youth support to a named first-income outcome, while publishing results by age, sex and district.
Which rules protect public decisions, procurement and statutory bodies when political control is strong?
A minister is on leave while police investigate unverified allegations; no charge had been announced in the reporting reviewed on 31 July, and portfolios were reassigned. The case facts remain for investigators. The institutional question is whether standing rules cover leave, recusal, continuity, records and public updates.
Leadership measures
Audit and statutory-body account timeliness
Competitive procurement, variations and beneficial ownership
Cabinet decisions completed, overdue and formally revised
Initial policy direction
Create a public integrity and machinery scorecard covering audit, procurement, recusals, statutory bodies, guarantees and implementation of major decisions.
Can essential services stay open through a hurricane, drought or fuel-price shock?
A single shock can hit the fiscal plan, power, water, food, tourism and vulnerable households together. Readiness must cover operations and finance, not only infrastructure.
Leadership measures
Shelter, drainage, communications and supply readiness
Backup power and water at critical facilities
Fuel imports avoided and contingent finance available
Initial policy direction
Join the hurricane operating plan to critical-service energy, water and communications resilience, with published readiness gates before peak season.
Seven fields make an issue ready for leadership review.
A strong card explains the result, the owner, the money, the blocker and the evidence. It stays useful when performance turns red because the threshold and next decision are already clear.
01
OutcomeA target, deadline, baseline and latest result
02
StatusA defined green, amber or red threshold
03
OwnerThe accountable minister and senior official
04
MoneyBudgeted, committed and spent
05
BlockerThe decision or dependency holding progress back
06
EvidenceData date, coverage and confidence
07
Next moveOne action, one owner and one due date
04 / Water securityReliable supply by zone
AMBER
Outcome and deadlinePublish the national service baseline and repair plan.
Illustrative design · a live scorecard requires verified operational data.
Baseline
Data request open
Latest
Coverage incomplete
Owner
Utility + regulator + government
Money
Budget / committed / spent
Blocker
Zone-level service data
Confidence
Provisional
National resilience
Four shocks every major plan should survive.
01
CIP receipts fall sharply
Show the projects, transfers and reserves affected at 25%, 50% and 100% revenue loss.
02
Tourism and airlift weaken
Trace the effect on jobs, tax receipts, foreign exchange, hotels and household income.
03
Oil prices rise
Show the effect on power, transport, food costs, the fiscal balance and targeted support.
04
A major hurricane lands
Test emergency operations, contingent finance, debt, critical services and recovery capacity together.
Evidence base
Sources behind this priority screen.
The page adapts a leadership-dashboard assessment into an independent SLPA agenda. Factual claims are anchored to official Saint Lucia, CSO, IMF and Caribbean Development Bank material, with recent operational changes clearly attributed to dated local reporting. Policy directions are SLPA analysis and remain open to challenge and revision.