In our November 2025 Community Chat, and with members of the Caribbean tech community, ICT Consultant Natalie Maharaj of Trinidad and Tobago, and Dr Lyndell St. Ville of Saint Lucia and the tech firm Datashore, the panel discusses: the imperative of implementing digital ID systems in the Caribbean region; the current state of AI governance; and cloud versus local or on-premises facilities and services in the Caribbean.

 

This episode is also available on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music.

The continued digital transformation of the Caribbean region appears to be at an inflexion point. Although it is essential that we try to keep pace with the technological advancements that have been occurring to increase our competitiveness and productivity, we are still challenged in addressing some core fundamentals. Three examples come to mind that formed the basis of this month’s Community Chat podcast episode.

However, before we share this episode’s topics, allow us to introduce our guest panellists.

 

Introducing our guest panellists

Natalie Maharaj

A versatile ICT Executive and Digital Transformation leader, Natalie Maharaj brings over two decades of experience driving strategic technology initiatives across government, corporate, and international organisations. Her leadership extends to national advisory roles, where she has contributed to the local adoption of ISO  standards, consulted on national ICT policy, whilst also championing Cybersecurity Awareness, AI Governance, and Digital Inclusion.

Her collaborative approach and commitment to excellence have been recognised as she earned a sponsored invitation to present at the UNCTAD’s Small Island Developing States (SIDS) Conference in Singapore. As Vice President of the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA) Trinidad and Tobago Chapter, she actively promotes global standards and professional development within the local professional community.

Natalie holds advanced degrees in Operational Cybersecurity and Business Administration, complemented by ongoing training in AI, Digital Transformation, and IT Governance. Not limiting herself to technology, she is a champion for diversity and was awarded a full scholarship by the Organisation of the American States (OAS), successfully completing a Diploma in Leadership for Social Inclusion and Access to Rights.

Dr Lyndell St Ville

Dr Lyndell St. Ville provides ICT consulting, advisory and capacity building services across the region. By mobilising technology to enhance development and close innovation gaps, he has developed and strengthened systems in the public and private sectors. His background includes application development, system integration, and enterprise architecture which has led to improvements in the resilience and security of tools used by organisations worldwide such as: Trent University in Canada, The Ontario Court of Justice, The U.K. National Health Service, The Guyana Ministry of Public Security, The Barbados Ministry of Maritime Affairs and the Blue Economy, The University of Guyana, CARILEC, and the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre in Belize.

He established the technology firm Datashore to serve the growing business need for data management, business intelligence and related cybersecurity services. He authored of the “Everyday Computing” weekly newspaper column to demystify issues broadly related to the use of technology.

His doctoral studies at the University of Glasgow contributed a novel middleware infrastructure for sharing data in sensor networks. He is a past president of the ICT Association of St. Lucia, a member of the ICANN At-Large Community, and is a Caribbean Development Educator.

 

The topics discussed

First, the imperative of implementing digital ID systems is clear. It is the bedrock for delivering modern, citizen-centric government, driving financial inclusion and facilitating greater productivity across a broad range of systems and sectors. Across the region, several Caribbean countries, including Belize, Jamaica, Guyana, and Barbados, are in the process of implementing a digital ID system. However, their implementation has been protracted, which has led to questions as to whether these new-fangled systems are indeed necessary and was the basis of our first topic.

Our second topic focused on artificial intelligence (AI). Although generative AI has taken the world—and the Caribbean region—by storm, AI governance is still underdeveloped. Such a framework would seek to ensure that AI applications are ethical, non-biased, and serve national development goals, preventing technological reliance from deepening existing inequalities. However, nearly three years after generative AI platforms became mainstream, little progress has been made in the region regarding AI governance, despite AI becoming increasingly entrenched in both business and personal use. What does this say about the importance of AI governance?

Finally, to successfully develop and maintain 21st-century digital economies, continuous access to the internet and other digital services is critical. Cloud options have several benefits, but recent outages at AWS and Cloudflare, for example, have highlighted how vulnerable organisations and even countries are when cloud-based services are used and thus arguments can be made for more on-premises solutions. At the same time, Caribbean countries are also vulnerable to natural disasters. Hence, although cloud has its benefits, including cost savings, scalability, flexibility and facilitating remote access, on-premises or locally based services also have several pros, including greater control. internet independence, and potentially better privacy and security. We thus wrapped up this Community Chat with a discussion on cloud versus on-premises/local.

 

We would love to hear your thoughts!

Do leave us a comment either here beneath this article, or on our Facebook or LinkedIn pages, or via Twitter, @ICTPulse.

Also, if you or a member of your network is interested in joining us for an episode, do get in touch.

Let’s make it happen!

 

Select links

Below are links to some of the organisations and resources that were mentioned during the episode, or might otherwise be useful:

 

 

Images credit:  N Maharaj;   L St. Ville;  Bethany Drouin (Pixabay);  Freepik;  Markus Winkler (Pixabay)

Music credit: The Last Word (Oui Ma Chérie), by Andy Narrell

Podcast editing support: Mayra Bonilla Lopez