(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) More than eighty delegates from the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and neighbouring countries participated in a colourful opening ceremony of the Sixteenth Meeting of the Council for Human and Social Development (COHSOD) at Le Meridien Pegasus Hotel, Georgetown Guyana under the theme: Realising the Potential of Youth and Culture in the Development of the Community.

Dr. Edward Greene, Assistant Secretary General Human and Social Development at the CARICOM Secretariat, placed the meeting in context and gave an overview of the policy and programme achievements of the Council.

In welcoming the delegates, the Hon. Dr. Frank Anthony, Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport, Guyana, exhorted the meeting to identify challenges confronting youth and fashion innovative solutions to treat with them. In his opinion, the ability to do so would determine “whether we prosper or fail as a region.”

He urged the meeting to devise strategies and policies for youth and culture development which were country specific, yet regionally impacting and which would “reflect real and specific needs of real people…”

“We cannot have a one size fits all approach to youth and culture development,” he stated, but hastened to add that it was not necessary to re-invent the wheel but to build on existing programmes, pointing out that the CARICOM Commission on Youth Development should provide the necessary baseline data for policy formulation and programme development.

Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community, His Excellency Edwin Carrington in his address underscored the significance of the meeting, stating that the challenge of mainstreaming culture into development thinking and practice in the Region was one which the Meeting needed to address as the Community examined policy and practice to ensure that the potential of culture was realized.

The Secretary-General highlighted three major achievements of the Council in the past year - the landmark Summit on Non-communicable Diseases; the impending launch of the Caribbean Vocational Qualifications (CVQ) and the partnership between the CARICOM Youth Ambassador Programme and telecommunications service provider of Suriname, Telesur. He stated that those were accomplished in the spirit of functional cooperation and that their successes were reflective of the critical role that the COHSOD plays in achieving the ultimate goal of the community "…a better quality of life for all.”

Chairwoman of the Meeting the Hon Cynthia Forde, Minister of State in the Ministry of Education Youth and Sport, Barbadosm  in her Opening Remarks congratulated the Secretariat for its milestone achievements in education, health and sport, noting that the staging of the ICC World Cup Cricket, as well as other international sporting activities within the Region, spoke volumes of what cooperation could achieve.

She further stated that the Caribbean has “a special brand that is distinctive and well worth promoting and preserving,” hence the need to promote cultural industries and to “provide a firm and sustainable economic base for our artists, athletes and cricketers.”

Commenting on the youth agenda, she said that the focus of the youth agenda assumed critical importance and pledged her country’s full support to the youth agenda, and specifically to the CCYD.

The Meeting also cited Dr. Lucy Steward, retiring Registrar of the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC), for her outstanding leadership in education and for her untiring efforts in promoting the programmes of CXC. She was presented with a gold pin by CARICOM Deputy Secretary-General, Her Excellency Ambassador Lolita Applewhaite.

The Opening Ceremony came to its close with the signing of a partnership agreement between Telesur and CARICOM for youth development through Information and Communication Technology (ICT). In signing the agreement, Mr. Dirk Currie, Chief Executive Officer of Telesur, called on his private sector counterparts to invest in activities that promote youth development as “an investment in youth is more than equal to an investment in the future of our Caribbean nations.”

Mr. John Darville Interim Dean of the CARICOM Youth Ambassadors (CYA) expressed thanks on behalf of the meeting and acknowledged key players in the development of Youth and Culture in the Caribbean.

The Meeting continued with a feature presentation on the theme: Realising the Potential of Youth and Culture in the Development of the Community, made by Dr. Hilary Brown, Programme Manager for Youth and Culture Development in the Secretariat.

Contact: piu@caricom.org