Chairman
Deputy Secretary General Caribbean Community
Ministers of Government
Members of the Diplomatic corps
Members of Staff of the CARICOM Secretariat
Members of Regional and International Organizations
Distinguished Ladies and Gentleman
Members of the Media

As you have learnt, I have been pressed into service as acting Chair of this meeting until the substantive Chair from the Commonwealth of Dominica arrives later today and in accordance with the principle of alphabetic rotation. It is my pleasure to fill the breach. But in so doing you will forgive me if I appear unfamiliar with the necessary protocols notwithstanding my receiving a crash course by the Assistant Secretary General on the main issues and the numerous acronyms.

This Council for Human and Social Development (COHSOD) is a very important mechanism within the Community. It provides a human face to the myriad of rules and regulations intended to deepen the integration process, as the Region moves toward the implementation of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME). It reminds us that the enterprise for achieving the objectives of this Community must place emphasis on human development.

I am aware of the fact that long before any major accomplishments could have been associated with trade and economic integration and, for that matter, foreign policy coordination, the areas of health and education were the flagships of the integration movement from the days of CARIFTA. Long before the Needham Point Declaration at the Twenty-Eighth Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government (July 2007) on a Functional Cooperation: A Community for all, the traditional functional cooperation initiatives were associated with this Council. One of the most outstanding example is the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) which has been in existence since 1972 and which has fashioned a world class certification system that has expanded its scope, impact and authority over these past 36 years.

Then there is the Caribbean Cooperation in Health (CCH) Initiative and the functional cooperation it has inspired among CARICOM States and PAHO that resulted in the CARICOM being the first region in the world to eliminate polio and small pox. This achievement had important positive consequences for the school system by reducing the number of children and adults afflicted by these debilitating diseases. The same positive relations between health and education is prescribed by the Caribbean Commission for Health and Development chaired by Sir George Alleyne which made recommendations on preventive strategies to reduce the incidence of the non communicable diseases, in particular reducing diabetes and obesity and their implications for our children’s health and educational attainment.

The increasing rate of mortality from HIV/AIDS, that is highest among the youth of this Region between ages 15 and 29, must be halted if this Region is to check the erosion of its human resources.

I raise the connection between health and education merely to point out the important role that our schools system could play in creating awareness of preventive strategies and behaviour change to increase wellness of the individual and the communities in which they reside. Hence, I am pleased to note that the agenda for this meeting will also discuss the regional framework for action for children, health and family life education, the wellness revolution, the regional crime prevention strategy and plan of action. In this regard, I commend our predecessors that convened a special COHSOD of Ministers of Education in 2006 to discuss the role of education in the accelerated approach to HIV/AIDS.

It is clear that an education agenda crafted in this 21st century must take into account the diversity of the human experience. It must intersect with culture, the cultural industries and edutainment to reach the widest cross section of the population. It must engender tolerance of differences: in religion, ethnicity, gender and approaches. It must draw on the new information technologies to optimize efficiencies and effectiveness of not just learning, but lifelong learning. In fact it must open up those opportunities for reducing inequities between rich and poor, urban and rural, men and women, boy and girl.

I am pleased too to note that this agenda will help us to understand the issues that are evolving from the work of the Caribbean Commission for Youth Development. We need to know what are the aspirations of our youth, we need to ensure that our youth are empowered as active partners in the development of the social and economic agenda, we need to recognize that only with their engagement in the development agenda of this Region that we could hope to make the dynamic changes on which the future of this Region hinges, especially in the context of an unforgiving and hostile international arena. We need to engage in succession planning so that the Obamas of the Caribbean emerge and we can in unison say, like he did, “Yes we can.”

I know we can achieve much judging from one of the items that I had an opportunity to glance at prior to this opening session which showed that the implementation rate of the educational agenda is relatively good. It shows that so many of the mandates required onerous chores on the part of the CARICOM Secretariat in preparing the background analysis and for organizing the policy discussions, producing reports and ensuring that despite the changes in governments in Member States and the shifts in policy emphasis, the Region’s business moves on in an orderly, efficient and effective manner. I would therefore like to register my appreciation for the yeoman service of the staff of the Secretariat, which is reflected in the carefully compiled documentation for this meeting.

I also wish to thank the Minister of Education and the Government of Guyana for their gracious hospitality. The setting for this meeting is quite conducive to our work, and I look forward to the discussions of the items included in the exciting agenda of this Seventeenth Council for Human and Social Development.

May I therefore remind you in the words of Master Adriel Isaacs who recited for us that we are called to serve the wider Caribbean Community. As we seek to build that Pan Caribbean Community for which our forefathers lay the foundation, let us serve unstintingly.