BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Advocate – FOR the next two days, stakeholders from the region gathered at a high-level meeting in Kingston will discuss a range of issues common to the Caribbean, including sustainable energy, social policy, macroeconomics and trade, climate change, and natural resource protection with a view to making the region's voice be heard at the global level. The forum — the Caribbean Regional Preparatory Meeting for the Global Conference of Small Island Developing States (SIDS), which is slated for next year in Samoa — is an avenue for the region to evaluate progress made under the 1994 Barbados Programme of Action and the 2005 Mauritius Strategy of the Implementation of the Barbados Programme of Action. The intention, as chair of the Alliance of Small Island Developing States Ambassador Marlene Moses puts it, is for the Caribbean region to come together to ensure that its sustainable development priorities remain on the international sustainable development agenda.
