Between Façade and Reality: A Critical Reading of the SER Annual Report 2024

Between Façade and Reality: A Critical Reading of the SER Annual Report 2024

12 September 2025

The Sociaal-Economische Raad (SER) of Curaçao has published its 2024 annual report, focusing on themes such as the future of work, artificial intelligence (AI), and international engagement. The report presents a polished picture of progress and modernity, placing Curaçao in the global conversation on innovation and sustainable development. Yet, a closer analysis reveals a striking dissonance between the narrative of the report and the island's pressing socio-economic realities.

Structural Challenges

Curaçao continues to face structural vulnerabilities that overshadow the technocratic optimism of the SER:

• Poverty and Inequality: Despite policy interventions, poverty levels remain high, with a significant part of the population struggling to meet basic needs.

• Governance and Corruption: Weak institutional capacity and persistent concerns about corruption undermine trust in public policy.

• Economic Dependence: The economy relies heavily on tourism, a sector characterized by volatility and environmental unsustainability.

• Demographic Transition: Rapid population aging places increasing pressure on pensions and healthcare systems.

• Healthcare Crisis: Chronic underfunding and shortages in personnel and infrastructure weaken the resilience of the health system.

These dynamics form the lived reality against which the SER’s discourse must be evaluated.

The AI Agenda

In its annual report, the SER highlights artificial intelligence as a key theme for Curaçao’s future. This emphasis aligns with global policy debates but raises essential questions about contextual relevance. The adoption of AI presupposes robust digital infrastructure, human capital development, and effective governance. Curaçao’s current socio-economic landscape does not yet provide these prerequisites.

The risk, therefore, is that AI functions more as a symbolic policy device—signaling modernity and global connectedness—than as a practical solution to the island’s most urgent challenges. This phenomenon resembles what scholars describe as “policy isomorphism”: the adoption of global policy trends without adequate local adaptation or implementation capacity.

Critical Considerations

The SER’s approach raises several questions:

1. Relevance: How does prioritizing AI address immediate structural issues such as poverty alleviation, healthcare reform, or institutional strengthening?

2. Equity: Who stands to benefit from AI-driven initiatives, and will these widen or narrow existing socio-economic inequalities?

3. Capacity: Does Curaçao possess the institutional and infrastructural capacity to operationalize AI policy in a meaningful way?

Conclusion

The SER’s 2024 annual report reflects an aspiration to position Curaçao within global policy discourses on technology and innovation. However, this ambition risks obscuring the island’s structural socio-economic vulnerabilities. Without addressing foundational issues—such as poverty, governance, healthcare, and demographic change—the emphasis on AI may remain a discursive strategy rather than a transformative policy tool.

For Curaçao, genuine progress will depend less on adopting global buzzwords and more on aligning policy priorities with the lived realities of its population.

Join the debate in this conference: https://ser.cw/work-re-imagined-introductie/

Miguel Goede