Senate Debates $47M Loan for Early Childhood Education and Women’s Employment

A forty-seven-million-dollar loan for early childhood education and women’s employment came before the Senate today, with senators raising concerns about how the money will be spent and whether Belize should take on more debt.  The loan motion, already approved by the House of Representatives, would authorize borrowing twenty-three-point-five million US dollars from the World Bank’s International Development Association. The money is for the Early Childhood Development and Female Empowerment Project. The project calls for sixty new classrooms at primary schools in communities that need preschool services, along with upgrades to thirty existing preschools. Around eighty early development centres would also be established or improved. The aim is to give more children access to early learning and help women who cannot work or pursue training because they lack childcare.  Government Senator Christopher Coye presented the motion and outlined what the funding would support.

Christopher Coye, Senator: “You have scores of locations. I wouldn’t want to go through all of them. But in Belize District where you have, for example, new construction and expansion in communities without preschools, on that list we include Luckystrike, Burrell Boom, Lords Bank. In Cayo you have Buena Vista, Los Tambos, Selena, Franks Eddy and a number of additional ones. In Orange Walk; Trinidad, San Antonio. In Toledo, Santa Ana, San Felipe, Mabil Ha, Medina Bank, Santa Cruz and it goes on and on. So a lot of work is already being done, has already been done as to identifying these locations where new schools are to be built or new classrooms are to be added onto existing schools. In San Pedro Town the understanding is that a new school would be built. The focus generally is on government schools rather than denominational schools. But that is where the work or the focus of the work is concentrated. Of course how the money is spent is an important consideration and Senator Faber spoke to the breakdown I think roughly $21 million in one line item and then $2 million with grants and $200,000 with stipends something alone that line. But if you look at the project description it gives much more detail as to what that $21 million will be spent on and certainly a big part of the effort of this project facility is in increasing the availability of pre primary education or early childhood education. That means outfitting schools, adding classrooms or even building new pre primary schools where they don’t exist.” 

Lead Opposition Senator Patrick Faber, however, questioned what guarantees are in place to ensure the money goes where it is supposed to. His contribution focused on whether the funds would be used for the purposes outlined in the motion.

Patrick Faber, UDP Senator: “A topic, of course, that’s very dear and near to me. I believe very strongly in early childhood development, and we must note that there is a difference between early childhood development and early childhood education. And we have seen where the government has gotten, and in fact this is a loan for this purpose, but it does not cement in, if you will and even in the education bill that we just passed while we are grateful to the United States and the Compact for monies to help in that vein, it is not cemented in even that additional amount of years for students. But if, I always used to say that if we could find these monies, the monies are best spent getting our children to start strong. The strong foundation is what is needed. They will stay in longer when they are 13 and 14 and 15 and 16, if they get a strong start. Early childhood development is very crucial to our nation’s development. And I think this is but a drop in the bucket to what is needed and we applaud the effort overall today. But I thought I’d use the opportunity, Madam President, to impress on this honorable Senate and of course the wider Belizean population that we need to be doing much, much more for early childhood education and in fact early childhood development. The terms Madam President are genuinely concessional. 40 years to October 2065. 10 years grace on principal then 1% of principal every six months for 10 years and 2% every six months for 20 years. A service charge of three quarters of 1% and a commitment charge of up to half a percent on money not yet drawn. There is also a grant of US$1.28 million from the Early Learning Partnership. On price this is about as good as good as borrowing can get. But the Senate’s job, Madam President, is not only to approve the price, it is to ask whether the money will do what the title says. And on that, Madam President, I have some concerns but while I give credit for the good quality of the loan it is as good as it gets, can’t help but point out again that this is additional borrowing. In fact by the time, this is a good one, but by the time we leave here today with all of these motions that are coming up, I think the figure that I looked at was something like $119 million more being borrowed. This is a, I used to say every time we come here without fail it is to borrow more money.”

Business Senator Kevin Herrera raised a broader concern about borrowing. He said he would rather see the government address the country’s current fiscal issues before taking on another loan.

Kevin Herrera, BCCI & Belize Business Bureau: “I agree with Senator Faber, Madam President, that this is a motion that is very difficult not to see the tremendous benefits in terms of what the objectives are. We’re talking about supporting early childhood education and care. We’re talking about addressing women’s employment opportunities. Again, those are very noble goals. Madam President, as well as when we look at the terms of the loan we’re talking about $46 million and very favorable terms over a long period of time. And so again, no issues there. My problem with these loans going forward, Madam President, with all loans going forward, is given the issues we’ve had in the system over the past year with respect to procurement, with respect to the scandals that came about within the administration, within the financial system, Madam President, I really believe that before we look at bringing all these new funds into the system that we should have really looked at some significant reforms within the administration of the finances in the system. And so the goals are great, Madam President, but I really don’t feel comfortable that when I say I’m supporting early childhood education and I’m supporting childcare and I’m supporting females and mothers being employed, that that is actually what I’m supporting because there there are other things that creep into these systems.”

The project would also receive a separate grant of one-point-two-eight million US dollars from the Early Learning Partnership. According to the World Bank, only thirty-nine percent of three- and four-year-olds were enrolled in preschool during the 2023–2024 school year. The bank says limited access to childcare also keeps many women out of the workforce, two issues this project is intended to address.