Caricom head wants greater assistance for developing countries
he seventh general meeting of the Caribbean Community (Caricom), its associated institutions and the United Nations began here yesterday with Caricom Secretary General Irwin LaRocque underscoring the importance of providing aid to developing countries like those in the Caribbean to ensure their future socio-economic development.
In addition, La Rocque, who said the forum provides an excellent opportunity for discussions on issues of benefit to Caribbean people, also urged the world community to assist in the fight against crime which he said was strangling the Caribbean's development.
"These biennial meetings are not merely ritual encounters or polite engagements, but are vital working sessions in which discussions are of necessity, strategic, pragmatic, forward-looking and results-oriented.
"The meetings provide an excellent opportunity for regional and international technical experts, who are well informed and well positioned, to exchange views, diagnose current cooperation and to identify concrete projects in specific priority areas which will yield results on the ground, ensuring tangible benefits to the citizens of the Caribbean Community."
LaRocque said that the meeting was taking place at a time when the world is contemplating the future beyond the global development compact represented by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
He noted that Antigua and Barbuda's diplomat, John Ashe, was also assuming the presidency of the 68th Session of the UN General Assembly beginning next month that will be crucial in setting the stage for the launch of the post-2015 agenda.
"We have a great interest in developments in relation to its elaboration, and our Community will take an active role in the deliberations with a view to ensuring that the region's interests are adequately and effectively addressed.
"We seek an integrated, comprehensive and flexible Development Agenda building on the lessons learned from the MDGs and which is responsive to the diverse development realities with which individual countries and regions are confronted."
LaRocque said that one of the critical areas in which the UN and Caricom have forged an enduring and important partnership is citizen security, which he described as "an issue of paramount concern to the Caribbean Community".
He said such are the dimensions of the scourge of crime and insecurity in the region that Caricom leaders have made security the fourth pillar of the Community.
"Caricom joined the global family of nations earlier this year, under the auspices of the United Nations, to adopt a landmark agreement, the Arms Trade Treaty.
"For us in the Caribbean, the stemming of the illegal trade in arms, and in particular Small Arms and Light Weapons, is of paramount importance. Such illegal trade, in which the Caribbean finds itself a vulnerable transiting point, is wreaking havoc in our small communities, terrorising neighbourhoods, claiming innocent lives, and compromising our economies by undermining our investment climate and socio-economic development efforts. "
LaRocque said that Caricom fully understands that crime in the Caribbean cannot be solved by such interventions alone and must do its part to help itself and has since developed a targeted strategy to address the issue.
"The 2013 Caricom Crime and Security Strategy is an important weapon in the Caribbean arsenal to fight the war against crime and I look forward to the UN's full support in its implementation including through the long- awaited re-opening of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime in Barbados."
In his address, the region's top public servant said that development threats come in many forms, and even as the Caribbean grapples with those posed by crime, it grapples too with the effects of a protracted global financial and economic crisis that holds many of its small developing economies in a near stranglehold.
He said small economies like those of Caricom have structural and institutional characteristics which increase their vulnerability to external events and limit their capacity for adjustment.
"This situation is exacerbated by onerous debt, and graduation from access to concessionary development funding based on criteria, such as GDP (gross domestic product) per capita, which do not take due account of vulnerability.
"The resulting prognosis for Caricom's economic resilience is unfavourable. Our member states are, however, firm in their commitment that the Caricom Single Market and Economy is the best means to attain sustainable development in the region."
LaRocque said that the recently held Caricom summit in Trinidad and Tobago provided an avenue for the regional leaders to discuss a framework to generate economic growth and development and in so doing recognised the need to pursue a development path which engenders inclusiveness of all stakeholders.
He said that path should also lift the knowledge base, innovation capability, and entrepreneurial capacity of the region's people to engage in competitive, higher value-added economic activities.
"However, while these undertakings must be Caricom-owned and driven, they can only be realistically achieved if Caricom can examine, adapt and adjust global best practices to its needs, and benefit from the kind of international expertise and support that international organisations, such as the UN and its agencies, can offer. "
He told the conference that climate change was also another matter of relevance to the region's development, adding that as Caricom pursues its development agenda, it is obliged to factor in what for many seems like an abstract threat, "but what for us is a lived, fearsome reality".
"I refer here to the effect of climate change and the related phenomena of sea level rise, increasing oceanic temperatures, and increased and more intense weather events. The Community's advocacy regarding the implications of these intertwined phenomena on the socio-economic and fragile physical environment of the low lying island and coastal states of Caricom is a fight for our very survival. "
LaRocque said the region's call for reliable, accessible, and sufficient climate financing, through mechanisms such as the UNFCC Green Climate Fund to allow it to build capacity to adapt and mitigate, is a critical factor in our pursuit of sustainable development.
"It is essential for Caricom, in pursuit of its goals, to engage in strategic alliances and sound negotiating and lobbying strategies. It also needs to have access to credible expertise, which the UN through its relevant institutions has been pivotal in providing.
"We count on that continued support as Caricom prepares to participate in the Third International Conference for Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in Samoa in September next year. "
He said another key area for Caricom is non-communicable diseases (NCDs) recalling that the UN High Level Meeting convened in September 2011 at the initiative of the regional grouping had focused global attention on the scourge that NCDs represents.
"The assistance and expertise of PAHO/WHO (Pan-American Health Organisation/World Health Organisation) contributed greatly to the success of the initiative which culminated with the adoption of a Political Declaration on the Prevention and Control of NCDs. Continuing multi-sectoral action is required for the implementation of the Political Declaration and for the preparation of the comprehensive review in 2014.
"It is our understanding that all UN Resident Coordinators, by a joint communication of UNDP and WHO, have been mandated to ensure that the UN System gives priority to supporting implementation of the Political Declaration. This is deeply appreciated.
"In the Caribbean, we look forward to the coordination of the efforts of the UN System by UNDG LAC, a commitment made when it visited the Caricom Secretariat last November. In this regard, a UN inter-agency support group in the Caribbean would be useful," LaRocque added.
(CMC)
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| Date Posted | July 24 2013 |