(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Hon Dr. Frank Anthony, Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana and Chair of this Twenty-Second Meeting the Council for Human and Social Development (COHSOD), Ministers of Government and other delegates to the XXII Meeting of COHSOD, Secretary General of the Caribbean Community, Ambassador Irwin LaRocque, Heads of Regional Institutions, Members of the Diplomatic Corps, Co-Chairs of the Task Force on Cultural Industries – Mr Adrian Augier and Mr Sydney Bartley, Mr Kerry Frank, Dean of the CARICOM Youth Ambassador Corps, Members of Staff of the CARICOM Secretariat, representatives of the media, ladies and gentlemen.
It is my pleasure to welcome you to this Twenty-Second Meeting of COHSOD convened under the Theme – Culture, Youth and Sport: Strategic repositioning for Human Development and Economic Growth, and to bring you brief introductory remarks as we commence this Opening Ceremony which will set the tone for the proceedings of this Meeting of the Council, and even in so doing, provide an opportunity for sensitization of our wider audience of stakeholders within the Community with regard to important Human and Social Development priorities for our region which also have the potential to advance our economic development. I refer here, for example to the focus of this meeting on the draft strategy for the development of our cultural industries and our contemplation of issues with regard to the repositioning of Sport as an industry, with an initial focus here on Sports Tourism.
This Twenty –Second Meeting of the Council has been preceded by technical meetings of regional Culture, Sport and Youth Officials who have examined in detail and made recommendations on many of the proposals put before COHSOD for consideration over the next two days. The focus of this Meeting on an integrated agenda which looks at youth development, culture and sport, provides us with an opportunity to connect the dots among these areas which are inextricably linked with each other and with all other aspects of our human and economic development.
Regional strategies developed to focus on specific facets of our human development highlight the importance of planning and implementation within the logic of an inter-sectoral approach. This is emphasized for example, in the Port of Spain Declaration on ‘Uniting to fight the Chronic Non Communicable Diseases, and the recent Political Declaration emanating from the UN High level Meeting on this issue, the Regional Framework for Addressing Gender Differentials in Education and of course, the Paramaribo Declaration of the Future of Youth in the Caribbean Community.
There are strong recommendations made for the ‘Whole of Government’, ‘whole of society’ approach and in particular, the institution of inter-ministerial Committees at the national level to routinely examine, plan for, implement and monitor interventions in these areas of development. The Council for Human and Social Development, (COHSOD) with its remit in the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas to ‘be responsible for the promotion of human and social development in the Community’ is well placed to consider these issues in the recommended holistic fashion, but its effectiveness is dependent on the operation of structures at the national level (National COHSODs) which mirror this Council. The Rules of Procedures for COHSOD actually detail this requirement.
As we re-examine and plan for repositioning our perspectives on the immediate issues before us, we have at our disposal, recently developed strategies to facilitate this exercise, the Draft Strategy on Cultural industries, the Paramaribo Declaration on the Future of Youth in the Caribbean Community and the CARICOM Crime Prevention and Social Development Strategy and Action Plan. The Region has already initiated action on some aspects of these plans.
I wish to highlight in this regard, the current regional focus on building capacity to address the issue of gangs and gang violence, and drug demand reduction. With regard to this latter issue, the CARICOM Secretariat, has undertaken, over the past three years, with funding through the Caribbean Institutional Strengthening Program under the EU 9th EDF, activities intended to address the scourge of drug addiction which threatens to erode the gains which we have achieved in Human Development. One area of Focus has been the development of tools for use by Member States in addressing behaviour change for Drug Demand reduction. I wish to highlight the fact that many of these tools have been developed by Youth across the Community, feature emerging modalities such as edutainment; these are an important addition to the suite of measures currently employed for this purpose.
We cannot over-emphasize the importance of involving our Youth in all facets of the development of the Caribbean Community. The 2010 Declaration of Paramaribo (2010) documents the Commitment of Heads to ‘develop mechanisms for the sustained and structured involvement of Youth in the decision making processes of the Community’. To the credit of this Council, the involvement of youth in its deliberations of this Council is not a new feature and we are particularly pleased on this occasion, to welcome the Dean of the CARICOM Youth Ambassador Corps, Mr Kerry Frank of Grenada, to participate in the Meeting and in this Opening Ceremony. We note with pride that Antigua and Barbuda has also has included a Youth Ambassador in its delegation. This is a clear demonstration of our determination to reorient our perspectives.
I close these brief introductory remarks by expressing appreciation to our many regional institutions and our development partners who have not only provided financial and technical support for program development and execution but who actively engage in visioning and planning with us as we seek to ensure that we move closer to the achieving our common goal of enhancement of the quality of life for the citizens of our Region.
I am confident that the decisions taken at this Twenty-Second Meeting of COHSOD and our follow up at both regional and national levels will move us steadily towards this goal. I thank you.
