Honourable Patrick Simmons, Minister of Youth Empowerment, Culture and Sport of Grenada and Chairman of the Council for Human and Social Development of the Caribbean Community;

 Honourable Ministers;

 Honourable Jermaine Wade, Parliamentary Secretary for Youth Affairs, Community Services and Sports, Montserrat

 [Distinguished Members of the Parliament];

 Dr Edward Greene, Assistant Secretary-General, Human and Social Development and Staff of the CARICOM Secretariat;

 Other Distinguished Guests;

 Representatives of the Media

 Ladies and Gentlemen

It is my pleasure as Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to welcome you all with these few remarks to this Special Meeting of the Council for Human and Social Development (COHSOD) on Youth Development.

Honourable Ministers, this Meeting is the second in the trilogy being held here in Suriname this week to focus on the place of youth in the Community and the CSME in particular. Yesterday, the Region’s Youth met here at a Forum to commence the final stages of the preparatory process for Friday and Saturday’s Summit. Those discussions were described by His Excellency Runaldo Venetiaan, President of Suriname and Lead Head of Government with Responsibility for Youth in the CARICOM quasi-cabinet as a sterling example of the kind of collaboration and partnership that was “absolutely necessary to advance the youth development agenda and by extension, the integration movement.”

Today I must once again extend the Community’s gratitude to the Government and People of Suriname for being gracious hosts and for the warm hospitality and excellent arrangements provided for this series of Meetings.

Honourable Ministers, we must bear uppermost in mind that these Meetings are being held in the wake of the greatest human tragedy this Community has ever experienced, with over 100,000 of its citizens dead and even more rendered homeless, by the earthquake which devastated parts of our Member State, Haiti. This situation is particularly poignant for those who were involved in the preparation for these Meetings, given that much of that preparatory process took place in that very Member State, Haiti. Our hopes and prayers are with our brothers and sisters in Haiti as they begin the process of reconstruction and rehabilitation of their lives. We must assure them that all of us in the Caribbean Community are, to some degree, Haitians.

Against this background, there is a crushing need for hope, for promise and for honouring thereof.

Honourable Ministers, distinguished delegates, the task you are faced with today is to begin to fashion the framework within which the recommendations emanating from the Report of the CARICOM Commission on Youth Development are decided on. Those recommendations are the fruits of the Commission’s sterling efforts after traversing the length and breadth of the Community through Member States and Associate Members, soliciting the views of the youth in particular and those of other stakeholders. I wish to congratulate the Commission on its work and its Report which we ignore at our peril.

In addition to the Report, critically, you will also have before you the outcome of the deliberations from yesterday’s Youth Forum which culminated with the issuance of a Draft Statement on Optimising Youth Contribution to Development and Integration. The truly stimulating discussions which energised yesterday’s session were testimony to the fervour, keen interest and great expectations which the Region’s youth place on this matter.

They demand no less of the decision-makers.

This is central to the point at which the Region is at this moment. The need is for us all to share both the burden of the responsibility of shaping the policies and seeing them to fruition by sharing our perspectives and being part of the implementation process.

Honourable Ministers, in that spirit, you have a crucial responsibility to help shape the final declaration to be made by Heads of Government at tomorrow’s Youth Summit entitled the Future of Youth In The Caribbean Community. Your input is vital, perhaps even decisive in the present circumstances.

Mr. Chairman, Honourable Ministers, in closing, I therefore implore you, as I did yesterday at the Youth Forum, to bear uppermost in mind the theme of the Report and to keep an Eye on the Future by Investing in the YOUTH NOW for Tomorrow’s Community for All.

I thank you.

CONTACT: piu@caricom.org