(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana)   Two days of CARICOM Civil Society Consultations ended Friday 17-18 June in St. Vincent and Grenadines, with critical recommendations on the way forward for Civil Society. The interactive sessions between the CARICOM Secretariat and Civil Society organizations facilitated by the CPDC, is intended to heighten awareness within the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) of the potential of Civil Society to contribute to the development agendas of Member States and the wider Caribbean Community.

The participating groups called for a national drive to register civil society organisations, and committed to the formation of a National Civil Society Organisation of St. Vincent and the Grenadines .

The groups also called for direct participation in governance at the highest levels, asserting that the only time that Civil Society impacts on Member States is in a general election. They called for a constant interchange between it and government on the critical issues of health, education, water and sanitation, relations between police and citizens, and inputs into the content of schools’ curricula.

In-country coordination was done by the Regional Integration and Diaspora Unit of the Office of the Prime Minister.

The “CARICOM Civil Society Project 2010” aims to identify opportunities for dialogue between CARICOM Member States and Civil Society on key national and regional issues, and to assist Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in identifying and participating in opportunities in the development process.

The Project will see consultations with civil society in Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, Saint Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago.

The CARICOM Secretariat team continues onto Saint Lucia 21-22 June, and Trinidad and Tobago 28-30 June, 2010.

Contact:  piu@caricom.org