‘No bitterness’ towards IDB

Therese Turner-Jones, the Caribbean economist and noted development advocate, says she has no ill will towards the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) or its president, Mauricio Claver-Carone, who this month pulled the plug on her nearly nine-year stint as Jamaica’s country representative.

She was general manager for the Caribbean division for five of those years.

In her first media interview since news of her separation from the IDB broke just over a week ago, Turner-Jones confirmed with The Gleaner at the weekend that she has been placed on administrative leave since December 15.

She remains an employee of the IDB until March 31 next year, when her contract expires.

The decision was communicated while the bank’s president was on a working visit to Jamaica between December 8 and 10.

“I have had an absolutely fabulous time working at the bank. It is an amazing institution with amazing people with great skills and expertise, and the bank knows how to solve development challenges,” Turner-Jones said by telephone.

She opted not to address directly criticisms made of the bank’s work in the Caribbean under her leadership and perceived shortcomings that Claver-Carone has put forward as being among the reasons for his recent shake-up of the top brass of leadership for the Caribbean, as well as Central and South America.

“I work at the behest of the president,(and) if the president thinks that I am not the person for the job, for whatever reason that is, then he has the right to choose his team. I am not questioning that at all,” said Turner-Jones.

“There is absolutely no bitterness between me and the bank, and I am leaving on really good terms. My experience [at the IDB] has been fantastic, and it’s not going to be marred by this one event,”

The former country representative defended the IDB’s work in the region as transformational, saying that there was a large body of work and significant accomplishments of development deliverables that have improved the lives of Caribbean people.

She has chalked up the high-level termination as an occupational hazard that senior office holders must contend with from time to time.

“Obviously, it is disruptive. It is disruptive to my life. It is disruptive to the team. It is fully known that at my level, which is very senior in the bank, these things can happen, and they tend to happen when you have new administrations. So I am not questioning that,” Turner-Jones said.

A Bahamian by birth, Turner-Jones hopes to continue working in a new capacity that positively impacts the development of the region. She was formerly with the International Monetary Fund.

“It’s hard to pull yourself away from your heartstring, so to speak. My husband is Jamaican – a lot of people forget that. My US-born teenager has Jamaican citizenship. So we are not going to go far from this region intellectually or even physically,” she said.

The former IDB regional head said she hasn’t yet decided on her professional future, but she wants to take a break and keep her options open.

“I still have a good chunk of time left before being fully retired, not that I see myself ever retiring in life. I would like to still make a strong contribution globally, regionally in whatever way,” she disclosed.

“But I just need to give myself some time. I need to recover some thoughts. I need to think about what I want to do next, how I want to do it. I am not in a rush. I am open to suggestions.”

Turner-Jones, who has been commended by Jamaican business people amid her pending departure from the bank, says she is not ruling out working in the private sector as her next assignment.

“With my sort of capabilities and experiences, I would love to share those to help solve really big development challenges that I still see lurking in every corner in our region. There is a lot of work left to be done and a lot of people who need the right motivation for doing something that is going to transform their lives,” Turner-Jones said.

huntley.medley@gleanerjm.com