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Remarks By Dr. Douglas Slater, Assistant Secretary General, Human And Social Development at The opening Ceremony of The Twenty-Sixth Meeting Of (COHSOD)  14 – 15 May, 2014,  Georgetown, Guyana

It is  a distinct pleasure to welcome you to this Twenty-Sixth Meeting of the Council for Human and Social Development (COHSOD) convened under the Theme of Labour and Gender.
I would like to begin by expressing my sincere gratitude to the ILO, the UN Women and the Caribbean Development Bank, for their support of this event and their on-going dedication to improving the quality of life of people in the Region.  Such collaboration is reflective of the strength of our relationships and indicative of the model of interconnectedness we must promote to achieve our international commitments and increase the social and economic prosperity of the Caribbean Community.

We are very fortunate at this meeting of COHSOD to have the participation of both Ministers responsible for Labour and Ministers responsible for Gender. We recognize that within the context of the Post-2015, SIDS and Beijing +20 Agendas we must examine the intersection of issues – particularly as gender is cross cutting and the empowerment of women is paramount to achieving sustainable social and economic development and reducing poverty. It remains a stark reality that the majority of the world’s poor are women.

All CARICOM Member States have expressed commitment at the highest political level to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment. This is found collectively in the Revised Treaty (Article 17), and also in their individual commitments to the Millennium Development Goals, Beijing Platform for Action, and in the adoption of the Convention for the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). We must therefore underscore our commitment to meeting our targets and indicators and supporting the Gender Equality Machineries to effectively provide the necessary technical assistance and policy advice to advance gender equality across CARICOM.

PANCAP JUSTICE FOR ALL DECLARATION IN JAMAICA…against all forms of discrimination including women and girls, race,sexual orientation etc. equal opportunity etc for access to Rx. for various diseases including HIV and NCDs.

Last week CARICOM Secretariat, in conjunction with the partnership of UN Women and CDB convened the Sixth Meeting of the Women’s/Gender Bureaux in Barbados. I understand it was a very productive meeting with participation of representatives of 14 of 15 Member States, 3 of 5 Associate Members and a wide range of UN Organizations and NGO’s. The recommendations formulated at this technical meeting will help inform our work over the next two days.
Consideration of Decent Work will be an important focus for our discussions at this COHSOD meeting, given its central role in alleviating poverty. The ILO promotes Decent Work as an overall sustainable development objective and provides support to its tripartite constituents (Governments, employers’ and workers’ organisations) in their progress towards the achievement of its realisation.  All CARICOM Member States have committed themselves to the ILO Decent Work Agenda at the international, hemispheric, regional and national levels. JFA and workplace discrimination for PLWA.
Within our Region there is significant unemployment and under employment existing alongside acute skill shortages in some key sectors of our economies. The lack of access to technology by many of our young people has the potential to widen employment and poverty gaps, and this needs to be addressed. We need to broaden offerings within our general education system to foster creativity and innovation to enable our citizens to take advantage of emerging occupations.
The Report of the CARICOM Commission on Youth Development highlighted the voices of youth who expressed concern about this situation, and also pointed to the high economic cost of youth unemployment. The incidence of unemployment among the youth is higher than among the adult population. It is estimated that a reduction in youth unemployment to the adult levels would contribute to growth of between one and two per cent in GDP among our Member States.
This meeting is also critical in preparing for the upcoming International Labour Conference in June, the 18th Session of ILO Americas Regional Meeting and the 18th Inter American Conference of Ministers of Labour.  In relation to gender, COHSOD XXVI will prepare to advance regional positions for Beijing +20, reporting under CEDAW, as well as gender mainstreaming in the Post 2015 and SIDS Agendas.
I look forward to our dialogue and deliberations during this COHSOD and hope we will forge strengthened partnerships to transform our economies, promote equality, and harness  innovation toward sustainable development. 
I thank you.

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