The Caribbean region needs greater collaboration among countries and subregional multilateral agencies to promote and articulate clear positions on Small Island Developing States (SIDS).

This is especially important in the lead-up to the Fourth International Conference on Small Island Developing States, which will be held in Antigua and Barbuda in 2024.

One of the major challenges that need to be addressed is the implementation of sustainable development in the Caribbean. To overcome these challenges, stronger institutions need to collaborate and work together in the region.

These were some of the important recommendations that emerged from roundtable discussions at the 21st Meeting of the Monitoring Committee of the Caribbean Development and Cooperation Committee (CDCC).

The ECLAC Caribbean meetings focused on how best to pursue a strategy to reposition the Caribbean in a changed, dynamic, and uncertain global environment.

In a video message, the Executive Secretary, José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, emphasized the need for countries in the subregion to take stock of their development and focus on measured steps for renewal and recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic.

He acknowledged that the world has changed in unanticipated and unprecedented ways, and the international landscape is fraught with heightened geopolitical tensions threatening fragile economic recovery and growth.

The war in Ukraine has resulted in a spike in food and fuel prices and supply chain disruptions, which has complicated the post-pandemic recovery in the subregion.

Furthermore, the prospect of prolonged war on the Gaza strip could lead to spiraling inflation and supply chain disruptions, thereby dampening overall global recovery.

The high-level meeting’s roundtable discussions focused on strategies to advance recovery and economic transformation, the SIDS agenda in the Caribbean, repositioning the Caribbean in the competitive global environment, and confronting the implementation deficit through strengthened institutional capacity.

At the end of the session, the Director of ECLAC Caribbean, Diane Quarless, presented a comprehensive view of the ongoing research and projects that were undertaken in the subregion in 2022. She encouraged participants to take note of the extensive areas they have been working in and urged them to call on ECLAC Caribbean for support if needed.

ECLAC Caribbean serves as the secretariat of the CDCC. Regular sessions are held every two years, with meetings of the Monitoring Committee convened during the intervening years. Trinidad and Tobago will chair the CDCC in 2024, where the Committee will meet for its 30th session.