The head of a regional civil society umbrella body is warning of the urgent need for increased participation of CARICOM Civil society in the regional integration process.
The need for such participation has become more urgent within a COVID-19 environment which has increased the demand for services from the sector at the same time that the sector feels more vulnerable.
Two years into the COVID-19 pandemic the fabric of Caribbean economies and societies is wearing thin, with some of its key stakeholders bearing the brunt of the virus’ damage. Richard Jones, Officer in Charge of the Caribbean Policy Development Centre (CPDC) said research by his organisation indicated that 68% of civil society organisations (CSO) and non-governmental organisations or NGOs viewed the potential impacts of the pandemic to be worse than the precipitating health crisis. They also believed there was a general lack of consultation in governments’ response to the pandemic and one assessment of NGOs representing vulnerable groups felt that the special needs of their beneficiaries were not considered in government measures.
Mr. Jones was speaking ahead of the launch of a project intended to improve the effectiveness of CARIFORUM Civil Society Organisations to deliver developmental services and representation that will influence the region’s social and economic development programmes and policies for sustainable development.
He added, “the prior deficit in the institutional and implementation arrangements which slowed the participation of CARICOM civil society in the integration process, have been compounded – pushing the progress of CSOs and NGOs back by at least a decade.”
The EU funded project set to shift the challenges faced by the sector is called Enhancing CARIFORUM’s CSO Capacity to Participate in National and Regional Development Programming and Policymaking and will be launched in Barbados on Tuesday, April 12th at the Courtyard by Marriott.
The project covers fourteen CARIFORUM countries including Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago and Suriname. The project intends to accelerate regional development and integration by bringing communities together for collective action, through institutional strengthening of NGOs and CSOs, to deliver enhanced services and undertake policy advocacy actions. This approach seeks to enable organisations to respond to the express needs of their vulnerable beneficiaries and will lead to the increased involvement of marginalised groups in mainstream development processes. This will be achieved through a variety of modalities including research, policy advocacy networks, small grants and capacity building activities.
This project will complement and leverage the work being done by CPDC in their current sub-regional civil society projects which promote good governance and participatory approaches to sustainable development
