Introduction:

The Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas establishing the Caribbean Community including the CARICOM Single Market and Economy provides the operational guidelines for the functioning of the Community as well as the Secretariat. In this regard, Article 17.2d that outlines the functions and powers of the Council of Human and Social Development (COHSOD) is particularly instructive.

It is in this area of human and social development that the Gender and Development Sub-
Programme (14.2) is located. The Directorate responsible for Human and Social Development
works in three (3) broad clusters, namely:

• Human Resource Development (HRD): education, labour and sport
• Culture and Caribbean Community Development: culture, gender and youth; and
• Health Development

The outputs of the various clusters contribute to facilitating the development of creative, healthy, secure and productive CARICOM citizens capable of functioning in knowledge based environment.

The Directorate utilises an inter-sectoral approach to its work with gender, culture and youth as cross-cutting themes. The Gender and Development Sub-Programme goal is to promote new and focused inter-sectoral approaches to contribute to Human Resource Development, Poverty Reduction, Gender Equity and the protection of disadvantaged groups in the furtherance of the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The Gender and Development sub-programme revolves around the mandates given at Heads of Government and the Council meetings. In this regard, the Meeting of the Heads of CARICOM Women’s/Gender Bureaux held in Grenada in September 2002 that accepted the recommendations of the Task Force on Gender Mainstreaming (appointed in 2000) remains applicable for work in education, labour and HIV/AIDS and recommended the process begin with education.

Likewise, the recommendations of the Twelfth Meeting of the Council for Human and Social Development (COHSOD) held in April 2005 in Georgetown, Guyana provided some clear directions for the immediate work programme in gender and development. It is also informed by the international agenda on gender and development issues in particular, the Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA) and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Overview 2008:

During the period, January to December 2008, the Gender and Development Sub-programme continued its focus on promoting new and focused inter-sectoral approaches to contribute to Human Resource Development, Poverty Reduction, Gender Equity and the protection of disadvantaged groups in the furtherance of the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the priority areas of the Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA).

	AREAS OF FOCUS	ACHIEVEMENTS
Inter-Agency/ Inter- Governmental collaboration	Enhancing gender awareness	Preparations for and the conferment of the Ninth CARICOM Triennial Award for Women Presentation of technical papers on gender relating to MDGs, gender and development, gender based violence, reproductive health, contributes to awareness of the issues Contributed to the preparation of papers/briefs and speeches on MDGs,migration, social investment/social development, gender for representation by the CARICOM Secretariat at regional and international meetings Review of the CARICOM Model Legislation External sensitization of subpopulations on gender issues within the Region Increased sensitization to gender issues through a message by the CARICOM Secretariat on the occasion of International Women's Day 2008 Increased awareness to the work of gender and development programme through periodic updates to the CARICOM Secretariat website on gender issues for internal stakeholders through the uploading of material on the intranet
	Gender mainstreaming activities in projects and programmes	Supported gender mainstreaming activities in HIV and AIDS; crime and security
	Address the role of GBV (gender-based violence) against women and children	Received funding under the CARICOM/Spain Cooperation Agreement for development of the institutional mechanism t address gender based violence Developed a concept note for the cyberviolence
	Mainstreaming of MDGs (Millennium Development Goals) into policy considerations	Continued engagement of development partners in advancing the issues of governance and private sector involvement in the attainment of the MDGs Reviewed the comprehensive list of MDG indicators developed by the Regional Advisory Committee on Statistics that was the convergence of all CCS, CDB (Caribbean Development bank) and UNIFEM (United Nations Development Fund for Women)
	Coordinate the advancement of child protection elements under the Regional Framework for Action, 2003-2006	Assisted in coordinating the Twelfth Special Meeting of the Special COHSOD on Children Prepared the paper on Comprehensive Child Legislative Framework and efficient implementing mechanisms for greater protection Identified priority actions for 2008-2011 for child protection in the Regional Framework For Action For Children 2002-2015 Mechanism developed for advocacy on children’s issues Establishment of children’s e-group that links stakeholders in development agencies, government and civil society
	Examine the issue of migration	Prepared briefs on migration

Projections:  January-December 2009

From January to December, attention would be given to the following work programme elements, leading to the following key results:

Key Results: MDG Targets aligned to Community health, education and culture goals and localized targets incorporated into national development agenda Improved institutional infrastructure to address Gender Based Violence Mainstreaming of gender into CCS/Community programmes and policies

	AREA	FOCUS
Inter-agency/ Inter-Governmental collaboration	Mainstreaming of gender into CCS/Community work programmes / policies including greater appreciation of the value and application of gender analysis	Gender mainstreamed into CCS programmes and projects Development of gender sensitive baseline information and situational analysis of experiences within CSME framework through identification of the Gender gaps in legislation,structural dimensions and level of awareness Gender coordination within the Region Build capacity in gender awareness and analysis Provide support to the social statistics/gender programme through the provision of themes and issues to inform the social/gender statistics and the 2010 Round of Population and Housing Census (PHC) Tools available for the mainstreaming of gender into policies and programmes Periodic updates of the Gender and Development webpage on www.caricom.org  and the Intranet Continued facilitation of the CARICOM e-groups on gender and children Virtual knowledge network for children of the Community developed and launched
	Improved institutional infrastructure to address Gender Based Vulnerabilities	Gender-Based Violence Finalization of the institutional structure of the regional mechanism on gender based violence Advocacy for gender-based violence in national budgeting in Member States Advocacy for increasing awareness and instituting mechanisms to combat cyberviolence as an emerging trend in GBV Monitor the trends in human trafficking Development of coordinated strategy for addressing and preventing sexual abuse of girls and women, and boys and men
		HIV and AIDS Gender mainstreamed into HIV and AIDS Policy advocacy for response to and impact on women and AIDS Gender responsive implementation of NSPs on HIV and AIDS
		Population Ageing Advocacy for increasing awareness for ageing as a social protection issue
	MDG Targets aligned to Community health, education and culture goals and localized targets incorporated into national development agenda	MDGs targets and indicators reflected or localized and aligned to Community goals Improvement of the statistical capacity in Member States to collect and analyse data relevant to the monitoring of the MDGs Process of development of MDG+ strategies commenced
	Strengthening of institutional mechanisms for child protection	CRC Articles on child protection implemented through legislation, policies and programmes Strengthen institutional mechanisms for combating child labour Development of early warning systems for vulnerable children and youth Development of regional strategy for child abuse detection, response and reporting developed and adopted Development CARICOM Declaration of Guiding Principles for application in all Child Protection

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