Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) gathered in Roseau, Dominica on Thursday for the organization’s 21st Intersessional Meeting. The agenda to be discussed in the two day (March 11 and 12th) meeting include the Haiti and the Community’s continued support following the January 12 earthquake; the Region’s response to the global economic and financial crisis, water shortage in the region and the status of the outstanding matter of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME). 

The meeting was convened, and will be chaired by Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit, and will be attended by at least thirteen Heads of Caribbean Government. It is not certain if Haiti President René Préval, who met with U.S. President at the White House in Washington D.C. on Wednesday, will be attending the meeting. However, it is understand that a leading member of the Haitian government will attend.  

Caribbean governments are concerned about the relief and reconstruction efforts required in Haiti, a member of CARICOM. The Community’s prompt response to the disaster was led by Jamaica, which is the sub-regional focal point for the area including Haiti under the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) arrangements.  

CARICOM’s primary focus in Haiti is health. The Community’s Health Initiative involves providing some 14 health personnel to be rotated initially every 14 days. The Community has lent tangible assistance in other areas such as providing relief supplies, conducting relief supply operations and mobilizing resources with some US$9.4M pledged to date.  CARICOM has relocated its mission to Leogane, a town on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince. 

The leaders will discuss water resources within the Community under the broader heading of `Critical issues in the development of the Community’. 

The agricultural sector, a key resource in many Member States, has been hard hit by the prolonged dry season in countries including Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago – all of which are reporting abnormally dry conditions. 

With water conservation plans in place in some Member States and resources allocated to alleviate the effects of the drought, CARICOM governments are encouraging conservation. El Nino, the weather phenomenon, has been blamed for the extended dry spell. Consideration will also be given to climate change in the context of the Region’s follow-up action to the Copenhagen Summit held last December 2009. 

The Head of the leading multinational agencies, the World Bank, The Inter-American Development Bank, and the International Monetary Fund, providing financial assistance to the Caribbean have been invited to the regional meeting. 

Edwin Carrington, Secretary General of CARICOM said last week

CARICOM will seek to articulate its positions on the major challenges it faces when it holds talks with the heads of the multi-laterals. Carrington is anticipating the discussions will result in the identification of new and viable approaches to the treatment of some of the major challenges of the Community including the crippling debt burden being carried by Member States which do not now qualify for concessionary debt reduction following their graduation from middle income status. 

The Heads of Government will also hold discussions with Jose Miguel Insulza, Secretary General of the Organization of American States. 

Key matters related to external trade that the Meeting will address include the negotiations for a CARICOM-Canada Trade and Development Agreement; the status of implementation of the CARIFORUM-EC Economic Partnership Agreement and the renewal of the Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act. 

The meeting will also consider follow-up to and preparations for upcoming summits including a CARICOM-Brazil Summit in April.