Georgetown, Source April 21, 2016
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carl Greenidge will represent Guyana in Basseterre, St. Kitts and Nevis on April 21-22 at two high-level, Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) meetings.
The first is the Fourth meeting of the Caribbean Development Roundtable (CDR) followed by the Twenty-sixth session of the Caribbean Development and Cooperation Committee on Friday April 22.
Specific attention will be given to the significant debt burden being shouldered by the countries of the sub-region, which has compromised the growth trajectory of Caribbean economies and hindered the ability of the governments to respond to their pressing local development imperatives.
These meetings will engage discussions on how best to advance the interests of the Caribbean within the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Addis Ababa Action Agenda of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development, and the Paris Agreement on climate change.
The proposed debt relief within the framework of climate change was presented at the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP 21) and targets the creation of a regional resilience fund to finance climate change adaptation and mitigation measures.
This means that countries such as Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Anguilla, Guyana, Montserrat, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago would have to commit to allotting the resources that they save on debt servicing to this Caribbean resilience fund. This resource will be used to finance climate change mitigation and adaptation actions within the region and would be managed by the Caribbean Development Bank.
The Caribbean Development roundtable (CDR) has as its agenda, a review of the options for the Caribbean as it pertains to the debt relief proposals; Town Hall discussion on the proposals of Debt Relief; a presentation on the prospects for growth in the Caribbean; Making a debt relief strategy work for the Caribbean: harnessing green funds to facilitate growth and economic transformation; pursuing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) within the existing debt constraints, and preparing an ECLAC response.
Meanwhile the Caribbean Development and Cooperation Committee (CDCC) agenda includes discussions on balancing the adjustment with sustainable development in the Caribbean, with emphasis on debt burden; preparing for an aging population in the Caribbean and ministerial dialogue.
ECLAC, headquartered in Santiago, Chile, is one of the five regional commissions of the United Nations. It was founded with the purpose of contributing to the economic development of Latin America, coordinating actions towards economic development, and reinforcing economic ties among countries and with other nations of the world. The promotion of the region's social development was later included among its primary objectives.
