CDB chief aims to deliver more

Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) President Daniel Best is ready to deliver an encore.

This follows a successful, yet challenging, first year in office that left him humbled by the progress made and the overwhelming support he received – from the financial institution’s Board of Governors down to the last staff member.

“I think it was Machel Montano who said last year was good, but we are chasing greatness. I’m humbled by how the first year has gone, but we have got a lot more to get done,” Best said in reflecting on his first 12 months as CDB boss, while envisioning the next year and beyond.

When he returned to the Barbados-based institution in February 2025, it was a homecoming, having joined the bank as an operations officer in 2009, before becoming portfolio manager in 2013 and director of projects in 2015.

“I am very pleased, but I’m also very humbled by how the first year has gone,” said the Barbadian civil engineer, project management professional and development banker in a recent interview.

Moments earlier, he had outlined the CDB’s vision for the next decade, the organisation’s first ever ten-year strategic, 2026-2035, during the annual news conference at the Frank Collymore Hall.

“I came to the bank, to the team at the bank, to the board of directors and to the Board of Governors, with a vision of rebirth anchored in the pillars of innovate, transform and thrive,” he reminded.

“For us as a bank, to really not just survive, but to deliver for the people of the region, we need to become something new. How the team at the bank, how the board of directors, how our governors have embraced that has been deeply humbling for me.

“And the fact that we were able to translate that vision into a ten-year strategic plan, which our directors have embraced and approved, is humbling and it’s exciting.”

He shared some examples of the progress achieved by the CDB team. Boosting existing partnerships and developing new ones have been two of the keys to success.

“Our multilateral partners have come on board with us. The fact that we were able to do that Exposure Exchange Agreement with CABEI, a development bank out of Latin American Caribbean, for US$450 million, thereby creating more head room for lending, is significant,” Best noted.

“The fact that we were able to raise 100 million Swiss francs on the Swiss market in 40 minutes, and closed in 90 minutes, is a testament to how people are viewing the CDB, and also the fact that the Fitch has reaffirmed our AA+ rating with a stable outlook.

“I could not have hoped I would have gotten through all of these things in the first year, but here we are and in the first year, we signed a memorandum of understanding with OPEC Fund For International Development and we are seeking to operationalise that now.”

This is what rebirth looks like, he underscored.

The CDB is also being more transparent, opening doors at its Wildey, St. Michael headquarters to external assessors.

“Everyone is aligning with the fact that we need to reposition ourselves and now is where we roll up our sleeves, now is where the assessments are underway,” the president said.

“The MOPAN (Multilateral Performance Network) assessment, which is an independent assessment of the bank, the governance review, which is another independent assessment of the bank, and the implementation diagnostic, are all important.

“All of these things point to a level of seriousness by the Caribbean Development Bank to do things differently, more efficiently, more effectively, and respond to our region in a much better way.”

When Best started his post about a year ago, it was a time of change not only for him. Barbados and other borrowing member countries (BMCs) had to confront the reality of a different world shaped by new policies implemented by global powers – especially the United States.

That uncertainty has continued into 2026, which means that it cannot be business as usual. BMCs are requiring more support – financially and otherwise.

One of the initiatives under consideration is expanding the CDB’s membership and deepening its funding sources.

“I don’t want to call any countries names right now, but I can assure you that we’ve had some very solid conversations with potential new members and those processes are advancing, and you will hear more about that, certainly in the coming year,” he said.

Major attention is also focused on unlocking more funding, especially at concessional rates.

There is an opportunity for the Caribbean private sector to play a bigger role.

“This is why we are doing things like the Trade Finance Guarantee Programme. This is why we’re seeking to unlock private capital,” Best explained.

“To ask the governments of our member countries to shoulder the entire development load is unreasonable. And I am not being political here – regardless of which country you pick, it’s unreasonable.”

“The private sector benefits immensely from government projects, whether it is reliable water infrastructure, reliable energy, all-weather access roads, you pick what it is, the private sector benefits from that,” Best said.

“I think there is agreement on all sides on this – that the private sector needs to shoulder a greater part of the burden, and this is where we will be bringing more innovative instruments, like the Trade Finance Guarantee Programme, to help to bring the private sector into this space.”

He stressed, however, that the Caribbean’s needs were not only financial.

Increased cooperation and integration are key ingredients he thinks can benefit the region massively.

“Going forward, I don’t know that there’s anything more important. In our strategic plan, regional cooperation and integration is a cross cutting theme. It means every single penny that we spend, we have to commit the mental energy to see how regional cooperation can be integrated into the intervention. For example, the matter of agriculture cooperation is extremely important for the region,” Best suggested.

The CDB’s plans also include reducing deficiencies now affecting loan approvals, disbursements and approvals.

“This is where the implementation diagnostic comes in. We are not pointing fingers at governments and saying you need to do better. We are looking at this as a partnership. These are the areas that you need to improve on – but hold on, these are the areas that CDB has to improve on,” he said.

“We are removing value-depleting layers in our process, because we have some, and also we are integrating more technology in how we assess and appraise projects and how we deliver.

“We’re looking at the entire project cycle and we have already seen some movement in that with one or two projects, but we are going to move even faster.”

Here is where the thrive part of rebirth vision unveiled in 2025 comes in.

“How will we know that we are actually succeeding? It is not about us feeling good about ourselves, it is by actually measuring the impact it’s having on people’s lives,” he submitted.

“We have a team at the bank revising our results monitoring framework, looking at the slew of indicators that we measure and determining what are the ones that actually matter and what are the ones that are superfluous.

“And then it is about how we can even drill down further. So when I say we are seeking to transform how we do business, that is what it looks like. So we are absolutely seeking to measure the things that matter for people’s lives a lot better.”

Top of the to-do list now is strategic plan implementation.

“We are going to pick it apart, now that we have the approval from our board. The very next step is developing the results monitoring framework and rolling that out in country engagement strategies,” he said.

“Every country does not have the capacity to do work in every sector that’s in the strategic plan, it would be an impossibility, but we need to make sure that our borrowing member countries are aware of what is actually in there, what they can benefit from, and how we’re going to measure what they’re doing, or what we are doing with them.”

“So it is a process, we are charting a roadmap for it, and we are moving swiftly towards completing the results monitoring framework, moving to the country engagement strategy, and delivering it.

He added: “It’s a ten-year strategy, the first time the bank is doing a ten-year strategy. So we are going to also monitor that strategy and have key checkpoints to see how we’re doing along the way.”

For Best, all of this shows that while year one went better than he could have imagined, he is not satisfied. There is much more to be done and the CDB team is determined to make 2026 a success for the people of the Caribbean.

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