Records of the West Indies Development and Welfare Organisation

Records of the West Indies Development and Welfare Organisation (WIDWO) relating to reviews of economic needs of these colonies and provision of advice about development schemes. Registered files of WIDWO are in CO 1042

Topics

Caribbean

Aid and development

Following a series of riots in various British colonies in the West Indies in 1938, the West India Royal Commission was set up to investigate social and economic conditions in the islands, British Guyana and British Honduras. Its report in 1939 resulted in the formation of the West Indies Development and Welfare Organisation (WIDWO) in 1940, and led to the passing of the Colonial Development and Welfare Act 1940.

Both measures were designed to assure Britain's colonial possessions of Britain's continuing commitment to economic and social development of the colonies during the war, while the WIDWO was also intended to counter American concerns about social conditions in the colonial territories in the Caribbean.

WIDWO was based in Barbados, headed by a Comptroller for Development and Welfare. Its function was to undertake continuing reviews of the economic needs of the West Indian colonies, and to advise colonial governments and the Colonial Office about proposed development schemes. WIDWO was essentially an advisory body, and such development schemes were required to be framed by governments and the comptroller in collaboration. Reporting to the Comptroller were advisers on medicine, education, agriculture, social matters, labour, economics, engineering, housing and town planning, and a small secretariat.

The Colonial Development and Welfare Act was amended in 1945, allocating more funds to development and welfare projects. WIDWO continued to collaborate with local governments in working out long term social reform programmes and development and welfare schemes for which United Kingdom grants were recommended until it was wound up in March 1958, when the creation of the Federation of the West Indies saw most of its functions being assumed by the federal government.

The Comptroller also served as the British co-chairman of the Anglo-American Caribbean Commission (AACC), established in 1942 to promote economic and social co-operation between islands and to avoid duplication of effort. The AACC became the Caribbean Commission in 1945, when the other colonial powers in the West Indies (France and the Netherlands) joined.