(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat in tandem with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) today launched the Caribbean Component of a four-year project designed to build capacity for CARIFORUM countries in complying with the implementation of Multi-lateral Environmental Agreements (MEAs).

Speaking at the launch, which took place at the Guyana International Convention Centre in Georgetown, Dr Edward Greene, CARICOM’s Assistant Secretary-General Human and Social Development welcomed the project as an opportunity to address “the myriad of challenges” which he said were affecting the successful implementation of MEAs at the national level. To date, the Caribbean has not enjoyed a high success rate in implementing MEAs.

According to Dr Greene, the failure to implement MEAs in the Caribbean had also slowed the rate of progress in realising sustainable development goals.

Funded by the European Community to a tune of US$1.4 million, the implementation of the Caribbean Component of the Capacity-building related to Implementation of Multilateral Environmental Agreements in African, Caribbean and Pacific Countries Project will be led by the CARICOM Secretariat in partnership with UNEP.

In this regard, Dr Greene added that the project presented a much needed opportunity to strengthen the Secretariat’s internal capacity to deliver specialized services to Member States. A number of those services include project management and writing skills, negotiation and lobbying skills, legal drafting skills, information management and exchange.

Under the project, technical assistance, training, policy and advisory support services will also be provided to enhance the capacities of the countries in implementing their obligations under MEAs. This, according to Dr Greene would facilitate Caribbean countries in addressing development challenges associated with the adverse effects of climate change, loss of biodiversity, drought, land degradation, waste management and other threats to the environment.

In her remarks, Ms Maria Recio, representing the UNEP Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean pointed to the vulnerability of the Caribbean to global and environmental threats and noted that the Project would contribute to “the implementation of strategies for sustainable development, increasing the prosperity of the Region, reducing poverty and improving peoples' livelihoods by strengthening and enhancing the capacity of Caribbean countries to effectively implement and comply with MEAs and related commitments.”

Ms Recio reiterated the objectives of the project and explained that UNEP was working towards ensuring that environmental challenges were addressed properly through environmental law and Multilateral Environmental Agreements. Those, she said, were “key elements to achieving better environmental governance at global, regional and national level.”

Pointing to the three-day Needs Prioritisation Workshop which would follow the launch, the UNEP representative expressed confidence that the outcomes from the Workshop, together with the previous review of identified capacity needs would define the scope and nature of the specific activities that would be developed in the project.

She then urged participants to make good the opportunity to ensure that the needs and priorities for their respective countries were adequately reflected in the project work plan.

More than forty participants including representatives from the ministries and related agencies responsible for environment and sustainable development in Member States of the Community, several CARICOM regional institutions and international partners are attending the workshop.

CONTACT: piu@caricom.org