Salutations
The Mandate
The CARICOM Commission on Youth Development arose out of a mandate from the 27th Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government held in St. Kitts and Nevis in July 2006. The Mandate is to “provide a full scale analysis of the challenges and opportunities for youth in the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) and to make recommendations on how to improve their well-being and empowerment.”
The Commission is blessed with a remarkable balance of visionaries and dreamers, talent and expertise, foresight and hindsight, youth and experience residing in nine talented and creative youth and six experienced and enabling experts drawn from varied Member States.
The Meeting
Since March 2007, when the Commission was set up, its journey which has been a challenging yet rewarding one has taken it to the Republic of Haiti for the Commission’s Third meeting. This is a defining meeting in which we spent two days discussing preliminary yet comprehensive research findings conducted over the eighteen month life of the Commission.
During the Commission’s two-day deliberations, presenters highlighted regional issues and trends distilled from a review of the literature on Caribbean adolescents and youth and from preliminary reports on youth perspectives on adolescent and youth vision, aspirations, concerns, identity and CSME perspectives; CARICOM and the CSME; risk, vulnerability, resilience and protection; and the relevance, functionality and responsiveness of youth governance structures.
The Data and Review of Literature
The data analysed so far have revealed some very interesting and in some instances rather disturbing trends among our Caribbean youth.
- There is evidence of the knowledge and information gaps existing among youth – Haitian youth included – with regard to the Caribbean Community and particularly its flagship programme, the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) and the Commission has discussed ways in which this knowledge gap can be closed
- The data also revealed the need for the Community both at the national and regional level to empower and engage our Caribbean youth at the highest decision-making level – and to ensure that their voice is heard and listened to
- Identity issues was a common theme in the data presented as well as in the literature reviewed. The strong call for youth to feel a part of the Caribbean and to feel a sense of one-ness in the Caribbean was noted. The Commission is alarmed at findings which indicate that Caribbean youth feel a sense of displacement and alienation and strong recommendations will be made on how this issue is to be addressed
- The issues of deferred, thwarted hopes and dreams and a prevailing sense of hopelessness were also expressed. In addition, the data point to distorted and perverted value systems among Caribbean youth.
- Of critical importance was the posture of suspicion existing in the relationship between youth of Lesser Developed Caribbean Countries (LDCs) and More Developed Countries (MDCs). The kind of suspicion which in itself defeats and undermines the ideals of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy.
The way forward
Having reviewed the Literature and examined the data thoroughly, the CARICOM Commission will devise a plan of action for the way forward.
The Commission will make recommendations that would both enhance the capabilities of youth leadership and at the same time identify ways in which to youth risk factors and vulnerabilities could be reduced especially among the poor and underprivileged, the incapacitated and the otherwise vulnerable.
It is hoped that the recommendations will contribute to strengthening of the social statistical basis on which decisions rest. Only in this way can we make meaningful policy recommendations on the actual social and economic implications of youth policies and programmes, thereby linking scientific evidence, policy research and policy making.
The Commission’s final report will contain a comprehensive situation analysis and recommendations that will be submitted to the special Meeting of the Council for Human and Social Development (COHSOD) in May 2009, before it is presented to the CARICOM Conference of Heads of Government in July 2009.
It is opportune that the Commission meets here in Haiti. Members of the Commission have been enjoying the warm hospitality of the Haitian people and have so far tasted slices of its culture and traditions.
The rich interaction between the Commission and Haitian youth from several organizations and network is also invaluable.
We have had the opportunity first hand to observe your resilience as a people. We have noted that for much of your history, Haiti has faced much more than others, perhaps because you had the audacity to dream of an independent democratic nation well in advance of other Caribbean colonies and you dared to actualize that dream. It tells us that the yearning for true democracy runs deep among the people – hence the persistent struggle.
If the future of the Caribbean Community is left in the hands of resilient Haitian youth then it is in good hands. It is you along with the rest of the Caribbean youth who will continue to dare to dream about a new Caribbean – not one fraught with suspicion, fear, discrimination, thwarted hopes and dreams but a fully integrated one Caribbean in which “you all can go over deah, and they all can come over heah.”
