(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The ultimate aim of working with and for children is to make our Region a better place for them to live, grow and develop. Making the CARICOM Region fit for children should be everybody’s business.
The fact that Member States are very well represented at this COHSOD is a clear indication of your conviction that a holistic approach is absolutely necessary to effectively implement the regional priority actions pertaining to children and youth as identified in the Regional Framework for Action for Children.
The goals for these priority actions are anchored in the work initiated in 2002, during the first Special Meeting of the COHSOD on Children and again at the last Special COHSOD on Children convened in March 2008 in Guyana.
Since the 2008 Special Meeting of the COHSOD, the Region has achieved and recorded results with significant impact and improvement in the six agreed thematic areas of the Regional Framework of Action for Children: early childhood development, child protection, HIV/AIDS, education, infant mortality and maternal mortality.
We are here once again in 2012 to review the Regional Framework, to assess the achievements made, the challenges encountered in implementation and identify the gaps that are yet to be filled in those areas. This critical review of the Framework will help us determine how well we have been doing in our endeavour to meet the commitments made to the Region’s children, adolescents and youth.
We are also here to take into consideration of the changing times in which we now live and work with its numerous challenges, and the impact these challenges will have on the decisions we make here.
Notwithstanding the significant gains we have made in the thematic areas, we must be cognizant of the fact that these are indeed challenging times for small and developing states like ours and we will continue to face very serious problems compounded by the impact of unacceptable increased levels of crime and violence, effects of climate change and migration on our children and our development. The increase in child sexual abuse, particularly intra-familial abuse in the home, teenage pregnancies, childhood obesity and homicides among boys 15 – 18 years are indeed cause for concern and of course, we must keep on the agenda, HIV and AIDS.
With its focus on children and youth, this Twenty-Third Meeting of the COHSOD will be discussing the issues relating to some of the thematic areas within the Regional Framework for Action for children to include, Child Protection with an emphasis on violence against children in all situations, Early Childhood Development and in particular, the region’s youngest citizens, the zero to three; issues of child health, youth affairs, advocacy and public education systems to protect children. We will also be paying particular attention to actions that give life to the commitments made by Member States in the Declaration of Paramaribo, as we consider the CARICOM Youth Development Goals and Action Plan.
The effect of climate change on our children is an issue of particular interest to Guyana and of critical importance to you as well. Our Region is prone to natural disasters such as hurricanes, flooding and now earthquakes; any development gains made can be undermined when these natural disasters strike.
It is my hope that during the next period, greater attention will be placed on identifying the kind of initiatives needed to protect and support vulnerable children (in particular) in emergencies.
I hope also that decisions will be taken to endorse the development of policies and strategies that will help to advance the work being done in early childhood development, child protection especially violence in all its forms and in all situations, child labour, human trafficking, discrimination and neglect.
No one government, organisation or agency can do it alone; it has to be a collaborative effort with all relevant stakeholders, school, home, church, community groups, institutions making a contribution. However, the medium and long term value of COHSOD XXIII will be determined and measured by the political commitment which will be absolutely critical in ensuring the effective implementation of the revised priority actions at both the national and regional levels in the next period.
Let us do the thing that couldn’t be done and work collaboratively to make our Caribbean a safer and better place for our children.
