In his New Year’s message on Thursday, Prime Minister Andrew Holness reflected anew on the challenges he has navigated with Jamaica during his leadership the last nearly 10 years while warning of multiple crises ahead in 2026.

Holness remembered Jamaicans who lost their lives to Category 5 Hurricane Melissa, the third most powerful hurricane ever recorded globally, and the most destructive storm ever to strike Jamaica.

“As we reflect on this moment, we do so with gratitude, with grief, and with a renewed sense of purpose,” the prime minister said.

As the country looks to rebuild from the storm, Holness said he’s “pleased to report that approximately 90 per cent of customers islandwide now have electricity, telecommunications, and water restored…”

He added that the Government has launched an extensive programme of school repairs, and it is expected that all students, especially those preparing for exams, will return to classes using rotational modalities where necessary.

“Our hospitals are being repaired and brought back online, supported where needed by field hospitals. I want to specially recognise our nurses and doctors, who have given unbroken service throughout this disaster. And I extend sincere commendation to all our first responders: the JCF, the JDF, and our emergency teams, who ensured a credible and effective relief response,” Holness said.

“There was extensive damage to homes, and I know many Jamaicans cannot rebuild on their own or need additional support,” he continued. “Because of the sound economic management of my Administration, we are in a position to respond effectively as we did during COVID‑19, with one of the largest direct social‑care programmes in our history, and again after Beryl, when over 16,000 Jamaicans received rehabilitation and rebuilding grants.”

He added that, shortly, the government will launch a targeted home‑repair and household‑rehabilitation programme for persons assessed as being tangibly affected by Hurricane Melissa.

“The Ministry of Labour and Social Security has already conducted over 50,000 assessments, giving us the critical mass of data needed to begin payments. The JDF, along with volunteer engineering corps from Ghana and Guyana, is already restoring roofs,” Holness said, adding “Modular semi‑permanent housing solutions have been ordered to shelter those who have lost their homes entirely.”

Noting that a crisis often presents an opportunity for a positive change, he said Hurricane Melissa has given Jamaica an opportunity to build forward better, both in the affected areas and across nationally strategic infrastructure and economic sectors.

“To lead this effort, we will establish the National Reconstruction and Resilience Authority, with special powers to coordinate a cohesive economic and infrastructure plan for roads, schools, hospitals, security, local government, housing, land regularisation, tourism, agriculture, logistics, mining, and the creative industries,” Holness said.

“This is our opportunity to purposefully build the Jamaica of the future and the Jamaica we all dream of, but which has long been constrained by structures of the past. Because of the strong economic foundation laid by my Administration, we have secured over US$6.7 billion in multilateral support for reconstruction and resilience,” he said.

In the meantime, with murders down by more than 40 per cent, falling below the 700-mark for the first time in 31 years, Holness touted the gains made in the crime fight.

“My fellow Jamaicans, for more than 40 years, our nation struggled with an epidemic of violence, both organised violence by criminal gangs and social violence across the society. Entire communities were captured and terrorised,” the prime minister said.

“Your government responded with Plan Secure Jamaica, transforming and expanding the JCF and JDF, creating MOCA, tripling the security budget, and implementing States of Public Emergency and Zones of Special Operations,” he continued, noting “We can now claim the third consecutive year of decline in murders: 8 per cent in 2023, 19 per cent in 2024, and 42 per cent in 2025.”

He said the achievement proves that Jamaica can overcome problems once considered impossible to solve, “just as we achieved the lowest unemployment in our history, the lowest debt‑to‑GDP ratio in 30 years, and no new taxes for the last 10 budgets.”

He touted the country’s resilience under his tenure amid “multiple, increasingly intense, and overlapping crises.”

“From the once‑in‑a‑century COVID‑19 pandemic, to global supply chain disruptions and inflation, to several major weather events, including two major hurricanes, one of them the most devastating in our history. And on the social front, we confronted an epidemic of murders and violence perpetrated by gangs that captured entire communities,” Holness said. “Without fear of contradiction, no other prime minister and Government of Jamaica has faced the number and magnitude of crises that my Administration has had to address.

“And equally, without fear of empirical contradiction, no other Administration can show the results of the last 10 years,” he said.

Still, Holness warned that the country must brace for more challenges ahead, especially as it relates to climate change against the background of back-to-back hurricane destructions.

“The climate is changing. Our oceans are warming. Weather events are becoming more frequent, more intense, and more destructive. A ‘once‑in‑50‑years’ event now seems to happen every five. No one expected Jamaica to be hit by Hurricane Beryl in 2024 and then by Hurricane Melissa in 2025. But this is the new global reality,” he said.

And climate is only one dimension of the uncertainty we face, Holness said.

“The global order is shifting. Geopolitical and geoeconomic manoeuvring is reshaping trade, supply chains, peace and security, the multilateral system, and technology. While no one can predict the future with certainty, the analysis is clear: climate shocks, geopolitical shocks, and economic shocks will create crises in 2026,” Holness said, adding, “We must therefore use our strengths, seize opportunities, overcome our weaknesses, and protect ourselves from the threats that will come. We must prepare to withstand crises, absorb their impacts, and recover quickly.”