Sir Arthur Lewis’ Vision for Development Resonates in Memorial Lecture

The Sir Arthur Lewis Memorial Lecture, a highlight of Saint Lucia’s 2025 Nobel Laureate Festival, celebrated the pioneering contributions of Sir William Arthur Lewis to economic development.

Delivered by Acting Head of the Regional Integration Unit at the OECS Commission, Dr Clarence Henry on Thursday night, the lecture delved into ‘Economic Prosperity in the New Age’, reaffirming Lewis’s relevance in addressing the Caribbean’s socio-economic challenges.

Dr Henry opened by framing the region’s persistent struggles with economic stagnation, drawing from Lewis’s early academic work in which he gave insight into overcoming these challenges.

“Arthur Lewis, inspired by this challenge, spent his early academic years examining the phenomenon of declining economic growth and underdevelopment in the colonies of the British West Indies,” he explained.

Quoting Lewis’s seminal work, The Industrialisation of the British West Indies, Dr Henry highlighted two key factors Lewis identified as barriers to growth: the absence of industrial development and overreliance on a declining agrarian economy. Lewis argued that industrialisation was essential for economic progress.

“He asserted that if agriculture is to give a higher standard of living, then industry must be developed,” Dr Henry pointed out.

Dr Henry also revisited Lewis’s groundbreaking Economic Development with Unlimited Supply of Labour model, which proposed redirecting surplus labour from agriculture to support industrial development. This approach, Lewis believed, would address the imbalance between population growth and agricultural productivity, reducing unemployment and poverty.

The lecture paid tribute to Lewis’s Nobel Prize in Economics, awarded in 1979—the same year Saint Lucia achieved independence. Dr Henry celebrated this milestone, noting its significance for both Saint Lucia and the broader field of development economics.

“Sir William Arthur Lewis…has made a fundamental contribution in development economics, both as an academic and in public service,” he said.

Education emerged as a critical theme, with Dr Henry stressing the need for greater investment in tertiary education to equip Caribbean populations for the jobs of tomorrow. He lamented the region’s lagging tertiary education attainment rate of 11.58 per cent over the past 50 years, compared to 46.7 per cent in the world’s happiest countries.

Dr Henry urged young scholars to embrace Lewis’ legacy by engaging with his writings and pursuing studies in development economics. He also emphasised the importance of strategic economic planning to achieve sustained growth and prosperity.