Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), once again emphasised at their 44th Regular Meeting that the Community must take the initiative to address the dire circumstances in Haiti, a Member State of the Community, to which there are moral and political obligations.
This is according to Dominica’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, International Business, Trade, and Energy Dr. Vince Henderson while providing an update on the meeting that he and Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit recently attended in the Bahamas.
At Monday’s media conference, Dr. Henderson emphasised that heads had agreed that CARICOM needed to take prompt, decisive action in light of the growing insecurity and its wide-ranging effects on all sectors of Haitian life.
The foreign minister noted that, as with the Organization of American States (OAS), which has backed several of the resolutions, Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit took the initiative in pressing CARICOM leaders to act immediately.
“The Prime Minister felt that it was absolutely necessary that immediate action be taken and that included getting into Haiti to understand firsthand what is happening in that country,” the minister revealed. “And I also need to inform you that while some seem to be a little timid, the prime minister expressed his readiness to go to Haiti. And he said that I should go, so we are prepared to participate in that process.”
The Heads of Government were joined in part of their discussions by the Right Honourable Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, who offered assistance in getting the various delegations to Haiti and ensuring that services will be provided to all members of the delegation.
Dr. Henderson further emphasised that by contributing to the creation of a plan to reestablish security and the rule of law, as well as by supporting the police, the Canadian government has actively participated in efforts to find a peaceful solution to the crisis in Haiti.
The Heads of Government took note of the different security assistance programmes offered by the Canadian government and placed special emphasis on enhancing the ability of the Haitian National Police to safeguard the populace from criminal activity.
Ariel Henry, the interim prime minister of Haiti, expressed his willingness to take part in the process of ensuring that the nation may reach the point where peaceful, free, and fair elections are possible, as has been the case with other regional nations.
Dr. Henderson further stated that discussions during the meeting focused on food security and ways to lessen the region’s dependency on food imports, which he adds is a crucial component of CARICOM’s initiatives to guarantee food security.
A $25 million effort to ensure that agriculture can be modernised within those states is also something the participating nations are considering launching.
The Bridgetown initiative, which the Foreign Minister noted is tied to the results of combating climate change and the involvement of CARICOM, was another significant item at the meeting.
“In the Conference of the Parties on climate change, the Bridgetown initiative was born out of a concept developed by the Barbados Prime Minister in which all [of] CARICOM participated, to help us to build the fiscal resilience to fight the impact of climate change, and the exogenous shocks that fall upon us by global and international action–the war in Ukraine, for example,” he revealed.
“…And that initiative is seeking to sort of reshape the institutions and financial institutions like the World Bank and the IMF, to ensure that our governments can be given the fiscal space, as it were to ensure that we can provide development assistance to our people, we can embark on strong social programs, while we build resilience against the impact of climate change with those international institutions coming to a better understanding of all realities,” Dr Henderson added.
He added that initiatives like this would ensure that Dominica achieves its aim of increasing climate resilience and that the rest of the Caribbean can embark on a programme similar to it with the help of said institutions. By reforming them so that debt forgiveness is possible, it will lessen the load of some financial responsibilities that are imposed on the country.
“So we tie that to the Bridgetown initiative to ensure that we can get money to reduce our financial burden. And I’m sure Dr. McIntyre, Minister of Finance will be happy to hear that so that we can look at debt restructuring, and we can get the kind of space that we need because we have invested so much rebuilding after we’ve been impacted by a major climate event,” he stated.
The heads of government at the meeting also made a very firm decision regarding their stances to guarantee that the issues regarding Venezuela and Cuba were addressed and once more urged the US to lift its unilateral sanctions against the Republic of Cuba, which they deemed to be “unjust.”:
