(CARIFORUM Directorate, CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) – More than 2,500 CARIFORUM nationals have been trained in Competition, Public Procurement, and Customs and Trade Facilitation under a €1 million capacity-building project funded by the 11th European Development Fund (EDF).
One of six components of the 11th EDF EPA Support Programme, the project was implemented by the CARIFORUM Directorate through a consultancy by OCA Global and Consortium to strengthen institutional capacity in CARIFORUM States for the effective implementation of the CARIFORUM-EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA).
The EPA Support Programme bolstered efforts toward the integration of CARIFORUM States into the global economy and was intended to maximise the States’ capacity to reap the benefits of the Agreement. According to Ms. Alexis Downes-Amsterdam, Director General of CARIFORUM, the CARIFORUM Directorate is mandated to build the capacity of CARIFORUM nationals to implement the EPA and to seize the opportunities it presents.
The project also sponsored eight CARIFORUM nationals for postgraduate degrees and diplomas in Competition Law and Policy at the University of the West Indies; five for postgraduate certificates in Public Procurement Law and Policy at the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom and eight for postgraduate certificates in Customs Administration through the Charles Sturt University in Australia, in collaboration with the Centre for Customs and Excise Studies in the United Kingdom.
