Before Hurricane Melissa impacted Jamaica, various Jamaican Diaspora organisations across the USA, Canada and UK were on standby with relief items ready to be sent as soon as ports were open to receive because this was not a drill. 

A number of overseas Jamaicans who I have had the pleasure of speaking with over my decades of being involved in the diaspora movement and having served as the first Future Leaders Representative for the USA on the Jamaica Diaspora Advisory Board, predecessor to the current Global Jamaican Diaspora Council, love the country of their birth, give back in many ways, help when asked and want to be more involved in nation-building.

Many hope to retire in Jamaica and many have children and grand-children who would consider making Jamaica their place of choice to live, work, raise a family and do business, if certain things were improved. However, they do not feel that the approach to diaspora investment has been what they are looking for and this disaster, which follows a year after Hurricane Beryl, presents the best opportunity to truly engage all overseas Jamaicans who wish to put their money where their mouths are or turn a brain drain into a brain gain by sharing their knowledge and expertise.

In his 2026 New Year’s Day message, Prime Minister Holness rightly pointed out that “the climate is changing. Our oceans are warming. Weather events are becoming more frequent…more intense and more destructive. A “once-in-50 years” now seems to happen every five.”

 Opposition Leader Golding acknowledged the Jamaican Diaspora in his message by pointing out that “a whirlwind of philanthropic generosity, as Jamaicans at home and abroad, got busy trying to assist our families and fellow citizens who needed our help. Containers and barrels of supplies were packed and sent home like never before.” 

My brother Robert and I toured the GEM warehouse in Miami with the Consul General Oliver Mair and Wendy Hart, President of American Friends of Jamaica after Thalia Lyn, Chairman of the NCB Foundation called me to ask me to shift my J$5 million donation commitment to their UNICEF WASH Programme for Hurricane Beryl relief to support a shipment that GEM was sending to Jamaica for Melissa relief with the help of the AFJ and the Lyn Family Foundation.

Countless other people also made donations of various sizes to support relief items in the immediate weeks after and others flew to Jamaica to assist in person, especially medical professionals. While this is great and necessary, this most recent disaster presents an opportunity to put in place systems and processes that permanently lead to diaspora financial and intellectual involvement in building a better Jamaica.

Hurricane Melissa was a stress test that exposed where Jamaica is most fragile and where we can modernise the fastest with immediate results. The national conversation now needs to shift to upgrading energy distribution, drainage, affordable housing development, food systems, public health and more. The diaspora response has been strong but scattered and overseas Jamaicans with disaster response experience have been left out of discussions even though their credentials are known to the powers that be.

The Jamaican Diaspora is a very deep source of treasure, both financial and intellectual. It must be tapped in a more systematic way that allows Jamaica to in a way that leverages capital that is more patient, more loyal and more understanding of local realities. We want to be part of building a better Jamaica but we lack the level of engagement and transparent, audited special purpose vehicles that allow us to participate and be confident about our dollars being used efficiently towards a national development vision of what the upgraded Jamaica will look like.

We do not want our ideas to fall on deaf ears or to depend on knowing a certain minister. We do not want to simply donate money to a general pool of funds and get no report. We want to work with the right local authorities to build regulated, transparent diaspora development vehicles that can participate in the local economy.

Diaspora Development Entities in the USA, Canada and UK with respective advisory boards or boards of directors, accountable managers, proper registration under each country’s local securities laws and clear projects to support in partnership with the Government of Jamaica would build trust at scale.

I have spent 6 years building the first SEC-regulated entity in the USA focused on investing in the Caribbean and know the US securities laws well enough to assist with that country and would gladly work with the GoJ on how to structure such a vehicle in that country. Projects funded by these diaspora entities could also pair an overseas Jamaican with specific experience and a local Jamaican apprentice so that we foster more knowledge and skills transfer. 

The Jamaica Diaspora Institute at UWI under Professor Neville Ying previously undertook a project to build a Jamaica Diaspora Skills Database and we can build on what was already started to truly identify the intellectual capital of our collective diaspora then engage supportive people in the way that best suits them. Not everyone is going to be able to or want to move back home but COVID taught us that we can get work done without being in the same physical location and Jamaica could only become more globally competitive by having people with decades of experience in some of the most efficient economies sharing their lessons with local partners and the overseas people could learn a thing or two from local partners well because the knowledge transfer goes both ways.

It is time that we finally leverage the Jamaican Diaspora to help drive the growth of Jamaica in a coordinated way and not just wait on disasters to engage in supporting rebuilding.

David P. A. Mullings is Founder, Chairman and CEO of Blue Mahoe Holdings, Ltd., a Bahamas-based impact investment firm focused on the Global South.