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The Honourable Dr Douglas Slater, Minister of Health and the Environment
Distinguished representatives at the Head table and in the audience The Media and delegations from our Member States It is my pleasure to bring greetings on behalf of Mr. Edwin Carrington, the Secretary- General of the Caribbean Community. It is also a pleasure for me to be present at this very important workshop and to give brief remarks. There are some given elements that characterise the nature of the countries in the Caribbean region that are assumed and should be factored into plans or interventions we develop to advance the region’s sustainable development. These include the small size, the limited flexibility in taking certain policy actions and the extreme vulnerability to exogenous factors such as the international economic crises. They have had a dramatic impact on the socio-economic circumstances of every member country in the Caribbean. In addition, CARICOM Member States have had to contend with a number of natural disasters such as hurricanes and most recently, the earthquake in Haiti, a CARICOM Member State. The region has also been experiencing some of the worst droughts in years, triggered by the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events as a result of climate variability which are known to produce reduced rainfall and elevated temperatures across major portions of the Caribbean with large negative socio-economic impacts. The exogenous factors are compounded by internal ones such as crime and violence, poverty, and in many cases high levels of unemployment especially among youth and women, drug trafficking and in more recent times the assiduous increase in the use of illicit drugs, to name just a few. The effects of illicit drugs on the development process are complex and have far- reaching implications. For example, the illicit production, consumption, and trafficking of drugs such as cocaine and marijuana result in high health care costs at the household and national levels; decreased earnings at the household level due to absence from work; low productivity due to man hours loss on the job and by extension contribute to a decline in the GDP; loss of revenue in the tourism sector; and the opportunity cost to investments for growth and development. In addition high security cost; loss of social capital and volatility in communities are some of the common features associated with illicit drugs right across the Caribbean. Under these adverse circumstances, it is highly probably that the use of and trafficking in illicit drugs could increase as young people and other vulnerable groups seek to address their adverse economic and social situations. The findings in the recently released Report of the CARICOM Commission on Youth Development attests to the hostile economic and social environment to which the region’s young people are exposed and their views on meeting these challenges. I believe that one critical and important intervention for addressing human and social development in the small vulnerable open countries such as ours, across the board to address the challenges associated with the many aspects of globalisation including trade, climate change, countering illicit drugs – is through the building of the critical mass of technical skills and technology to complement the network of institutional frameworks and systems that have been adopted and implemented at both the national and regional levels to modernise the regional governments in the implementation of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME). It is therefore very heartening to note the keen interest of Member States to actively participate in the element of the CARICOM Secretariat’s programme of work which seeks to build the institutional capacity and technical capability in Member States to address the problems caused by, and associated with the use and trafficking of illicit substances. This sub-regional workshop which focuses on the development of a national anti drug strategy and plan is only one of many capacity building workshops which has been undertaken by the CARICOM Secretariat with funding under the EDF Agreement between CARICOM and the European Union; the overall goal of the programme being to build that critical mass of persons and best practices for addressing illicit drugs. The development of a National Anti-drug Strategy and Plan is fundamental to successfully addressing both the demand for and supply of illicit drugs. But we cannot stop there. The Strategy and Plan must be implementable and sustainable. By implementable, I mean that cognisance must be taken of the cultural, technical and financial constraints which obtain in each country and that the Strategy and Plan must be developed within a framework of strong country ownership. This also implies that innovative and creative interventions should be considered on the basis of each country’s unique challenges. In addition to having an implementable Strategy and Plan, the value of monitoring and evaluation cannot be over emphasised. We must monitor and evaluate for effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability. This workshop proposes to address these critical elements and the other necessary components of a national anti-drug strategy and plan over the next four days. Madam Chairman, I thank the Government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines for its collaboration with the CARICOM Secretariat in the hosting of this important Workshop. I also want to express, on behalf of the Secretary- General of CARICOM, appreciation to members of the Technical Advisory Body on this initiative for their valuable input to the process and to their Governments for allowing them the time from their national obligations in order to advance the greater good of the region and to the European Union for the funding to the Caribbean Community to work in the areas of both crime and security as well as in reducing the demand for illicit drugs. To all the participants and the Government of St Vincent and the Grenadines, I trust that your expectations relating to this workshop will be met and that at the end of the workshop, each of the participating Member States would be pleased with the outcome. I thank you.
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