Who will reform Caricom?

There is a pervasive view within and beyond the Caribbean that the regional integration process is foundering, and that its progress is being held back by an absence of political compromise and a failing bureaucracy. The outcome of the recently held Caricom Heads of government meeting in Grenada did nothing to dispel such concerns.

Although numerous important decisions were taken on education, ICT, security, tourism, air transport, and non-communicable diseases, the sense was that a lack of financial and human resources, an absence of implementation, and political differences on major issues, make it unlikely that all but the most pressing matters will be acted upon expeditiously.

Worse, Caricom’s largely anodyne press notices and communiqué, appeared to be at odds with what was said to the media by regional leaders before, during and after the summit; suggesting the papering-over of irreconcilable divisions over a host of inter-regional and other issues that continue to bedevil the regional integration process.