Mr. Chairman
Honourable Ministers
Distinguished Delegates
Representatives of Regional and International Organisations
Staff of the Secretariat
Representatives of the Media
Ladies and Gentlemen

It is my privilege and pleasure to welcome you to this Sixteenth Meeting of the Council for Human and Social Development (COHSOD) of the Caribbean Community. I offer a special welcome to the Honourable Dr. Frank Anthony of Guyana, and Honourable Neville Wisdom of Antigua and Barbuda, who are both attending their first meeting of the COHSOD since their assumption of office.

I would also like to welcome in a special way, the many young persons who are participating in this meeting as CARICOM Youth Ambassadors or as members of their country’s delegations. Member States are to be congratulated on affording these young people the opportunity to participate in the Community decision-making processes.

There is another delegation to which I wish to express a really special welcome. I refer to the delegation of the Netherlands Antilles. Their presence here fills me with great pleasure, signifying as it does an unmistakable manifestation of a desire so warmly expressed to me, some three weeks ago, when I had the wonderful experience of visiting Curacao.

Ladies and gentlemen, this Meeting of the Council for Human and Social Development is taking place at an important time in the life of our Community, as we seek to ensure that mechanisms are put in place for our recently operationalised Single Market to deliver all that it promises for the people of our Region. The importance of paying due attention to the Human and Social Development aspects of our regional integration process has been clearly recognised in several ways by our Heads of Government.

Indeed, at the Eighteenth Inter-Sessional Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government in February of this year, Heads of Government decided that such issues should be placed higher on the agenda of meetings of the Conference, to facilitate their fuller discussion. At the Twenty-Eighth Meeting of the Conference in July of this year, the Leaders further signalled their commitment to give the most serious consideration to enhancing the role of functional cooperation, especially in the areas of human and social development by adopting a Declaration entitled A Community for All.

In that Declaration they made clear their firm determination, in their own words, to ‘make functional cooperation a priority within the Community as one of the principal means by which the benefits of the integration movement are distributed through the length and breadth of the Community’.

To give effect to that undertaking a Task Force is currently reviewing the status of functional cooperation and is expected to report to the next meeting of the Conference.

The success of the Single Market and Economy hinges as much on the appropriate development and participation of our citizens, as it does on the various legal and administrative regimes which set the parameters for its operation. Your Council, therefore, has a central role to play in ensuring that our citizens are equipped with the appropriate skills, attitudes and orientations and are facilitated in their quest to contribute to the success of the CSME.

Against this background, it is most fitting that this Meeting of COHSOD should focus on two important aspects of Human and Social Development, namely Culture and Youth.

In recent development literature, there has been heightened awareness of the relevance and importance of the role of culture in development. The challenge of mainstreaming culture into development thinking and practice in our Region, is one which this Meeting of the COHSOD will need to address. This is critical, as we examine policy and practice to ensure that the potential of culture is realised.

In this regard, among important items on our agenda today are those that consider the strengthening of regional mechanisms for sustainable financing for culture; the development and facilitation of our cultural industries - given their demonstrated potential for significant contribution to our economies - and the refocusing of our efforts to ensure that our regional mega festival, CARIFESTA, serves well its important cultural, financial, and Community-building objectives. We look forward, in particular, to the plans for CARIFESTA X, 2008, which will be unveiled by the host country, Guyana, during this Meeting.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we continue to hail our youth as the ‘leaders of tomorrow’ and to emphasise that it is they who will benefit most significantly from the Single Market and Economy. Indeed, there are large numbers of our young population who are on course to take their places as the leaders of tomorrow and who possess the necessary cognitive, affective, and other skills to do so.

Our CARICOM Youth Ambassadors exemplify this group.

Alongside these however, are growing numbers who seem to have lost their way or who perhaps have not had the opportunity to find their way.

The Conference of Heads of Government at their Twenty-Seventh Meeting in July 2006, recognised the importance of addressing these challenges and mandated this Council to:

‘establish a Commission on Youth Development to provide a full scale analysis of the challenges and opportunities for youth in the CSME, and to make recommendations on how to improve their well-being and empowerment.’

Our Heads of Government further demonstrated the seriousness of their commitment to facilitating this process, when at their Twenty-Eighth Regular Meeting in July 2007, they approved the budget for the Commission’s work and urged Member States to make their contributions to facilitate its work.

The Commission, as you are aware is co-chaired by Professor Barry Chevannes of the University of the West Indies and Ms Yldiz Beigle, a former Youth Ambassador from Suriname. The Council will receive its first Report from the Commission during this Meeting.

Honourable Ministers, during the past year, this Council of yours has been responsible for spearheading several important activities in our Community – for which you should be commended. Permit me to highlight just three of these.

Following on the 2006 Report of the Caribbean Commission for Health and Development which highlighted the growing challenge which the Chronic Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) pose to the health and economies of our Region, a Summit on NCDs was convened in Trinidad and Tobago on September 15 last, and resulted in the Declaration of Port-of-Spain with 18 actionable programmes. This Council must now take the lead, especially through the combination of its health, education, youth, culture and gender programmes, in ensuring that the various elements of the Declaration are fully implemented. Indeed, we all have a personal obligation to ensure, as our Heads of Government have proclaimed, that the “Health of the Region is the Wealth of the Region”.

Secondly, arrangements for the issue of the Caribbean Vocational Qualification (CVQ), which will facilitate the movement of artisans in the  CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME), have been streamlined and the first launch by a Training Agency is expected to take place in Jamaica by the HEART Trust/NTA on October 19 – in nine days time. In addition, arrangements have been put in place with the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC), as mandated by COHSOD XV, for the award of the CVQ to students in secondary schools. This development will facilitate the movement of a large number of wage earners throughout the CSME, and is one which our Heads of Government and our population have eagerly awaited. In this regard, I am very pleased that Dr. Lucy Steward, the outgoing Registrar of CXC is with us today, since her tireless efforts in co-ordinating and providing leadership to the Caribbean Examinations Council will be recorded in the annals of this Community.

The third and final example is our CARICOM Youth Ambassador Programme which continues to grow from strength to strength, as is evidenced by the increasing role which the Ambassadors have played in the promotion of the CSME, the fight against HIV/AIDS and other Community activities. Today, we will witness the culmination of negotiations resulting in a partnership between the CARICOM Youth Ambassadors and the telecommunications giant of Suriname, Telesur. This partnership involves the development of a high impact Information and Communication Technology (ICT) project, to engage Caribbean Youth in competitive activities that will promote the CSME.

There are of course, falling under the direction of this Council, other areas of high impact on our Community, such as, the Pan Caribbean Partnership Against HIV/AIDS, (PANCAP), the Caribbean Cooperation in Health (CCH) and the Caribbean Implementation Unit for Crime and Security (IMPACS) (to which the Assistant Secretary-General, Human and Social Development has already referred.)

The successes recorded by this Council could not have been achieved without the collaboration of our Development partners. They have provided not only valuable material resources for the various activities, but have also engaged in collaborative planning of programmes and streamlining of initiatives, to ensure that synergies were achieved among the programme elements and the outcomes enhanced. The Secretariat wishes to place on record its appreciation to our Partners for the important role which they continue to play in the development of the Region. Mr Chairman, we also recognise the importance of the various Ministerial Councils and Bodies working closely together in pursuit of the goals of the Community. In particular, several of the important elements of the arrangements for facilitating the CSME are addressed through overlapping mandates of this Council and the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) and the Council for National Security and Law Enforcement, for example.

Our officials have been working together in several fora to provide technical support and advice on issues related to free movement of skilled labour, workforce development, contingent rights, quality assurance and accreditation, domestic regulations, and food security, among others. In this regard, a joint Meeting of the COHSOD and the COTED has been proposed for November 2007 to address these common issues.

It is clear that the work of the COHSOD is at the very heart of the achievement of the ultimate goal of our Community, that is: a better quality of life for all. As you address the challenging Agenda before you today, I am confident that that you will be doing so in furtherance of that goal.

Mr Chairman, Honourable Ministers, Distinguished Delegates please accept my best wishes for a successful and productive Meeting.

I thank you.