Dionne Gordon | Rebuilding after Melissa: Relief first, local spending next

Hurricane Melissa did more than destroy lives and infrastructure in Jamaica. The Category 5 storm exposed the fragility of the systems that hold our economy and communities together. With sustained winds near 185 mph and rainfall reaching 40 inches in parts of the west, Melissa triggered landslides, washed away roads, and left nearly half a million Jamaicans without power. In those first hours and days, survival was the priority.

And as always, the world responded. Supplies arrived. Containers were shipped. The diaspora stepped up with unmatched generosity, Reggae and Dancehall artistes showed out. International agencies mobilised. This is the first phase of any national recovery: emergency relief that stabilises families and keeps communities afloat. It is vital, humane and irreplaceable.

But no country can recover on relief alone. Aid helps households avoid collapse, but it does not restart an economy. That requires a different engine, one powered from the inside.

'LOCAL MULTIPLIER EFFECT'

Jamaica is now entering the second phase of the recovery relay, the time where we must deliberately shift from external lifelines to internal economic circulation. In simple terms: Jamaican dollars must begin moving through Jamaican hands.

Across the world, research on post-disaster recoveries has shown that internal demand – local households buying, local businesses reopening, and local wages flowing – plays the decisive role in determining how quickly a country regains its footing.

Studies on the “local multiplier effect” consistently show that a dollar spent at a locally owned business generates between two and four times more economic activity than a dollar spent at a foreign-owned or externally structured business. Local businesses hire more Jamaican workers, purchase more Jamaican inputs, reinvest more profits locally, and contribute to the formal and informal structures that support monetary movement from St Thomas to Hanover. In small island economies like ours, the difference is transformative.

Diaspora and international support are our lifeline in phase one of post Melissa recovery However, most relief spending occurs in the country of purchase, not the country receiving the goods. This is not a flaw, it is simply how relief logistics work. Once the emergency stabilises, Jamaica must pivot. The second lap of the relay must be driven by Jamaicans spending inside Jamaica, visitors spending inside Jamaica, and institutions directing reconstruction dollars toward Jamaican enterprises.

This is where the recovery truly begins.

Every locally eaten meal, every night spent in a Jamaican-owned villa or guesthouse, every taxi ride, every craft purchase, every contract awarded to a Jamaican firm fuels wages, reinvestment, and business revival.

In the western parishes where tourism, services, and small businesses support thousands of families, the impact of that spending is immediate and profound. If visitors stay away or if most spending flows through foreign channels, the recovery will stall. If spending shifts deliberately toward Jamaican-owned businesses, recovery accelerates.

FAIRNESS IS NOT CHARITY, IT IS A STRATEGY

But consumers cannot carry this alone. Jamaican businesses must also act with national responsibility. Price gouging undermines recovery, erodes trust, and suppresses demand at the exact moment when demand is most needed.

After major disasters in Puerto Rico, New Orleans, and Antigua, businesses that resisted opportunistic markups, offered fair pricing, or provided community discounts were the first to rebound and the most effective contributors to the wider recovery. Jamaica needs that posture now. Fairness is not charity, it is a strategy.

At the institutional level, grants and concessional financing should prioritise local companies, especially enterprises that are the backbone of employment. Reconstruction procurement, whether public, donor-funded or NGO-driven, should use Jamaican suppliers wherever local capacity exists. Caribbean resilience studies repeatedly show that the share of reconstruction spending retained in the domestic economy is one of the strongest predictors of economic stability in the 12–24 months after a disaster.

ECONOMIC OPEN-HEART SURGERY

Recovery must also be measured with intention. Jamaica should be tracking the share of contracts awarded to Jamaican-owned companies, employment recovery in affected parishes, revenue trends among local enterprises, household income levels, and per-visitor spending in locally owned accommodations and restaurants. Data is not bureaucracy; it is direction.

Jamaica is moving from life support into long-term healing. Relief kept us breathing. However, recovery depends on the circulation of Jamaican dollars through Jamaican businesses, which sustains Jamaican workers. Think of it as economic open-heart surgery: the aid kept us alive; now we must restore the heartbeat.

The message must be clear and collective: come to Jamaica, stay in Jamaica, spend in Jamaica, and buy Jamaican.

Let local businesses act with fairness, let consumers act with intention, and let policymakers act with urgency. Every Jamaican dollar spent at home is a step toward rebuilding a more resilient, more confident, more self-sustaining Jamaica.

Melissa tested us. How we spend now will determine whether we pass or fail and, critically, how we rise.

- Dionne Gordon is a member of the Sheldon Alexander Group, an international consultancy specialising in private and public sector development in the United States and across the Caribbean. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com