Caricom Secretary-General Edwin Carrington will again facilitate a meeting for the Community’s regional institutions to follow-up on recommendations made at the Barbados meeting held last July.

In a press release Caricom said the institutions have been invited to the meeting in an effort to build on the initial attempt at harmonising their work to ensure more efficient and effective use of available resources. It is also envisaged that such harmonisation would galvanize efforts in the implementation of the Caricom Heads of Government decisions in keeping with the Declaration of Needham’s Point: A Community for All, by the Heads at the 28th regular meeting held in Barbados.

The release said it was against this background that the first meeting was held. Twenty-two heads of regional institutions attended that meeting which resulted in “a frank exchange of views on the broad vision for the development of the Community and on the contribution that those Institutions could make towards achieving that vision.” After the 2007 meeting a decision was made to institutionalise such meetings on a biennial basis, however in an effort to maintain momentum, it was also agreed to hold a meeting this year to follow-up on actions emanating from the first.

A number of sectoral clusters such as agriculture, air transportation, climate change, security and water management were also established at the inaugural meeting. The institutions involved in those clusters will meet on July 28 and 29 with a view to coordinating their activities, develop synergies thereby maximising their efforts and avoiding duplication of resources. It is expected that recommendations from the clusters will be tabled at the July 30 and 31 meeting.