By Kimberly Ramkhalawan
February 10, 2023
The Forty-Fourth (44th) Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) takes place in Nassau, Bahamas, from the February 15-17 2023.
The Meeting will be held under the Chairmanship of the Prime Minister of The Bahamas, Honourable Philip Davis.
Secretary General of CARICOM, Dr Carla Barnett provided some insight into some of the most critical areas that the heads will discussing at the meeting, along with several recurring and new issues, including the CARICOM Single Market and Economy, Climate Change, including Climate Finance, Agriculture and Food Security, Security, and Health, will again be in focus.
Reform of the global financial architecture will engage the Heads of Government, who will also receive a number of foreign guests to discuss political, economic and financial matters relevant to our Community.
Accessing financing from the international community forms part of this discussion and comes after much talk on the regional front spearheaded by Barbados PM, Mia Mottley, who has been vocal on concessional financing through ensuring Special Drawing Rights are afforded by the IMF to small island developing states, changing the way debt is viewed and handled by vulnerable states within the region.
Dr. Barnett says this will be treated with looking at it through the impacts of climate change and Caribbean economies along with financing.
Food security continues in this year’s meeting after the latest report from the CARICOM ministerial task force on food production and food security, which signals that member states collectively achieve 57 percent of the target to reduce the region’s food import bill by 25 percent by 2025.
Guyana’s President, Dr Mohammed Irfaan Ali, as chairman of the agriculture committee, has been leading in devising and implementing a plan to increase food production within the Caribbean. Updates expect to include not only the work done locally, but the assistance that has been received from international agencies who have been working with agriculture sectors across the region.
This year’s meeting is expected to also see international guests present, including Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and president of Afri-EXIM Bank, Professor Dr Benedict Okey Oramah, talking about an increased profile of the bank in the region. President of CAF-Development Bank of Latin America, Sergio Diaz-Granados, will also be in The Bahamas, who will be looking forward to discussing expanding the role of CAF as a development funder across the region, as only a few members of CARICOM are currently members of CAF at this time, while the Director General of the World Trade Organisation, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala will also be received during the meeting.
The meeting with the US will take place with CARICOM’s COFCOR, Council for Foreign and Community Relations which comprises of regional ministers of foreign affairs to follow up on some of the work that has been done following the Summit of the Americas, held last year in Los Angeles and the three committees that have been established.
Meanwhile, plans will be established as to how the region marks its 50th anniversary later this year. Dr Barnett says while its not a one day celebration, it will entail a build up of several regional events happening simultaneously along with the many CARICOM agencies across member states involved.