The CARICOM Sojourn

With the call for Civil Society to participate in the policy and decision making machinery at the national and regional level, I was pleased to accept the assignment as a BANGO representative, to coordinate a Civil Society delegation from Barbados to participate in what is now called the CARICOM "Forward Together" process.

This process is named after the Civil Society Forward Together Conference which was held in July 2002 to bring together the Civil Society sectors of the 15 CARICOM countries and the regional NGOs, to create a CARICOM Civil Society forum. Without knowing it, this served as an enlightenment which I would like to share it with you.

I gravitated from being the Coordinator of the delegation to become the Civil Society Country Representative for Barbados on the CARICOM Civil Society Task Force. Having found myself in this forum, I became the Chair of the Human and Social Development sub-committee of the Task Force.

Subsequently, the Task Force requested of me to take the lead on Information & Communications Technology (ICT), since BANGO was already managing an internet bulletin board that kept the Task Force in constant communication and allowed us to carry forward the work of the Task Force at no cost at all to CARICOM.

The Ripple Effect

By virtue of being on the Task Force and holding these two responsibilities, I was invited and attended several seminars and especially meetings of CARICOM and regional organisations, which focused on the implementation of the CSME. There are two other chairpersons of sub-committees and we were invited to be part of the Regional Transformation Task Force (RTTF) which is being led by the private sector.

I attended a CARICOM ICT Ministers meeting; three RTTF meetings, two meetings of the Task Force; a COTED meeting and a COHSOD meeting and it was a pleasure to see participation in action. It is also then that I saw how far behind Civil Society is in terms of participation.

At these meetings were UWI personnel, representatives from the Private Sector, Employers and Unions, Prime Ministers, Ministers, Permanent Secretaries and Heads of Departments of CARICOM governments.

Also in attendance depending on the subject matter of the particular meeting and what is expected to be achieved, were representatives of regional NGOs; CBU, CPDC, CAFRA, etc. and regional institutions; OECS, ECLAC, CRNM, etc. Representatives at the highest level of international organisations such as World Bank, IADB, UNESCO, USAID, UNDP, PAHO, ITU, etc., including some great Caribbean personalities.

The Awakening

The information from all of these meetings feed into CARICOM and informs the Heads of Governments on the decisions at hand. So when you hear that decisions are made, for example the free movement of people which is supposed to take effect in August, the mechanics of these decisions are made based on the information coming out of these kinds of consultations.

The technical people have their side. Labour and private have their sides. The academics and professionals have theirs as well and they all get in the ring pushing sides. Of course, once there we got into the ring and in many cases I would say that our inputs had a profound effect on the outcome of the meetings we attended. What came home is the fact that without a presence and moreso a voice, Civil Society will be left behind.

At the ICT meeting for example, the telecom Units, the government information services, the data processing department heads and Ministers of information and their permanent secretaries were there. We had a room full of administrators, policy makers, academics and practitioners from all over the Caribbean who were well versed in ICT.

What was overwhelming is the fact that CARICOM had convened the crème de la crème of ICT in the Caribbean to advise them. The problem is that "the people" on whom these decisions were to impact had no representation. The culture was missing and the plight of the poor was missing and being the only Civil Society representative there it became incumbent on me to represent them as much as I could.

Forward Together

The Heads have therefore created a culture of consultations that assembles the stakeholders, the policy makers, the academics and the practitioners. While Civil Society is represented by the regional NGOs, these NGOs have interest far beyond the 15 member states.

It then became clear that the Forward Together process brought together the Crème de la crème of CARICOM Civil Society leaders. It was designed to ensure that the Civil Society movement in each member state is not just represented but "meaningfully" represented. What does this mean?

There are NGOs operating in each member state within the sectors, for example, those concerned with health, disabilities, youth, gender, poverty, culture, education, environment, etc. By bringing these NGOs under their rightful sectors they will then be able to advise government and CARICOM on the Civil Society issues.

What are we bringing to the table? Each NGO specialises in its area of activity and have taken initiatives to address a myriad of problems based on the plight of the people. They have also developed capacity which, if combined with national and regional efforts can form partnerships for truly uplifting the people of the Caribbean .

This experience was so profound that at a meeting of the Task Force, the fifteen country Representatives of the Civil Society Task Force, pledged to return home and try to explain to NGOs that there is a place at the table for them and we must hasten to take our rightful space. This brings us to the importance of the July Conference, because only by coming together will the region be able to "Forward Together."

Roosevelt O. King
Secretary General - BANGO
e-mail: admin@bango.org.bb