On behalf of the CARICOM Delegation, I wish to welcome you most warmly to the Headquarters of the CARICOM Secretariat on the occasion of the Sixth General Meeting of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and its Associated Institutions, and the United Nations (UN) System.
It is indeed a pleasure for CARICOM to host the United Nations and several of its Institutions in our Region. The presence of so many of our Regional Institutions, along with strong representation from the UN System at this Meeting, highlights the level of commitment on both sides to this important partnership.
The Community is appreciative of the significant support and cooperation that it has received from the UN System which aid our efforts to achieve sustained social and economic development in an increasingly hostile international environment.
These biennial meetings between the Representatives of the Caribbean Community and the United Nations System, represent an invaluable forum for the review of CARICOM-UN cooperation and, through a frank exchange between partners, facilitate strategic planning for the enhancement of our collaboration.
Our discussions over the next two days will give us an opportunity to look at the progress made in the four areas which were identified under the Regional Strategic Framework, adopted at our Fifth General Meeting in 2009, as the main focus for collaboration, namely:
(i) momentum towards achievement of the Millennium Development Goals;
(ii) support to regional economic integration, growth and development;
(iii) the creation of a safe and secure environment for citizens and respect for the rights of all; and
(iv) enhanced governance, transparency and accountability in CARICOM.
These areas of focus flow from the Community’s four pillars which include economic integration, human and social development and security co-operation; we are therefore grateful for the support of the UN in these areas which will have served to bring us closer to the achievement of our goals and objectives.
In reviewing this progress, we must also advance our discussions regarding the utility of the Framework as the planning and monitoring tool to strengthen collaboration between CARICOM and the UN. We look forward to the presentation of the Final Report on the Framework, including its recommendations regarding how best to enhance the coherence of the United Nations’ engagement in the Region.
We must also engage in discussion on what we envisage as the main focus for our collaboration going forward. This exchange must take place against the backdrop of the recent decisions of the CARICOM Heads of Government at their Special Retreat in May this year on the matter of Prioritising the Focus and Direction of the Community. It will be our task, going forward, to ensure that the projects and activities which are on-going, as well as those which we will craft for our future collaboration, are tailored to take into account these priorities, so as to ensure maximum, measurable benefits to the citizens of our Region.
I am confident, based on the significant progress which we have made in various areas since our last meeting, including in the areas of agriculture and food security, climate change, education, and health, that this goal is achievable.
With regard to cooperation in health, the collaboration between the United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS and the CARICOM Pan-Caribbean Partnership (PANCAP) against HIV/AIDS is worthy of mention. You are of course aware that PANCAP was designated by UNAIDS in 2006 as an international best practice. Its governance structure which brings together all the stakeholders, including the development partners, points the way for other areas of collaboration in functional co-operation. The invaluable support and cooperation which we continue to receive from the UN with regard to this scourge has allowed us to make a tremendous difference in the lives of affected individuals, families and communities in the Caribbean.
We were pleased that the United Nations, recognising the devastating impact of this disease on societies across the globe, felt it of paramount importance to convene a UN High Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS in June of this year. That historic session has helped to bolster the global efforts to combat this disease by committing Member States to clear and measurable targets, in particular for achieving universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support by the year 2015. We look forward to the continued support of the UN to the PANCAP initiative as our Region does its part to combat this epidemic which has affected the lives of so many of our population.
I should also like to highlight the UN High Level Meeting on Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) which will be held in New York on 19 and 20 September 2011. It is well known that NCDs are the leading cause of death in the world, accounting, on average, for 60 percent of all global deaths. Recent figures show that between 1980 and 2008, the incidence of adult diabetes rose by 50 percent to reach 350 million persons globally. This is indeed a sobering statistic.
In the case of the CARICOM Region, NCDs are responsible for 62 percent of deaths, and the situation continues to worsen. Beyond being a medical or a public health problem, NCDs are, more importantly, a development problem, whose socio-economic impacts undermine the efforts which the international community is exerting to achieve internationally agreed development goals. The cost of NCDs to the economies of the Caribbean Community, excluding Haiti, is US$70-80M per year, another sobering statistic.
It is for this reason that the Caribbean Community, led by its Permanent Representatives to the UN, has worked assiduously to have NCDs recognised as an issue on the UN Global Development Agenda and to mobilise the international community towards collective and coordinated action at the national, regional and global levels. This is with a view to institutionalising the prevention and control of NCDs through policies and programmes within the development agenda. The adoption by the General Assembly in May 2010 of a resolution calling for this High-Level Meeting on NCDs was one of the fruits of these efforts by the Caribbean Community.
We therefore look forward to a successful Meeting in September, and, to the follow-up through the development and implementation of collaborative programmes and partnerships which will reduce the suffering and burdens on our societies caused by NCDs.
While I have spoken at length about the Community’s appreciation for the support and partnership which we enjoy with the UN System, it would be remiss of me not to use this opportunity to register CARICOM’s concern at the decrease in UN representation in the Region. There was, first, the closure of the UNODC Office in Barbados, even while it was simultaneously being acknowledged that crime posed one of the biggest threats to our Region; and more recently there has been the closure of the UNDP Regional Office in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. Similarly, we must express our concern that the UN ECLAC Sub-Regional Headquarters in Port-of-Spain has been without a Director since Mr. Neil Pierre, a well-respected Caribbean national, demitted office in early 2010.
We in CARICOM are of the firm belief, that while we enjoy very good working relations with our counterparts at the Head Office in New York, much more can be achieved by having a stronger UN presence in the Region, with the appropriate level of representation. We trust that this is a matter which the UN will take into favourable consideration and we look forward to positive feedback in the near future, regarding the re-opening of these critical agencies and the relevant appointments, which, we are confident, will enhance an already strong partnership.
Assistant Secretary-General, please convey to your Secretary-General, greetings from the CARICOM Secretariat and congratulations and best wishes as he begins his second term of office. We well remember his attendance at the Thirty-First Meeting of our Heads of Government last year in Montego Bay, Jamaica, and look forward to his return to the Caribbean!
On that note I would like to invite you Assistant Secretary-General, to address us.
Thank You.