Barbados Youth Leaders Participate In National Consultations On Development Of 2020 CARICOM Strategic Plan
Youths participate in a focus group discussion during the consultations
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade of Barbados, on
Tuesday, 10 March 2020, hosted youth leaders to provide input for the
development of the Results-focused Community Strategic Plan 2020.
The specially convened national consultation brought together youth
leaders from the secondary level of the country’s education system; the
University of the West Indies; Barbados’ CARICOM Youth Ambassadors, Chad
Monerville and Tirshatha Jeffrey; and vulnerable communities, including
the differently-abled.
The youths participated with energy and enthusiasm as they expressed their views on CARICOM affairs. The CARICOM Secretariat provided technical guidance and played a coordinating role in facilitating the consultation.
The youths were organised into focus groups to consider and propose issues that should be prioritised in the 2020 Community Strategic Plan. They recommended activities and actions that would assist in addressing the issues they highlighted, such as mainstreaming inclusiveness of all citizens including persons with disabilities, and other marginalised groups in public policy and strategy formulation and implementation, and representation of youth in governance at national and regional levels.
Other strategic issues discussed and highlighted by the young people
included the development of harmonized data protection; a privacy and
cybersecurity regional model policy; an integrated building code for the
Community; improved communication and information sharing on the
results of the required integration development agenda; annual
publication and Community-wide dissemination of annual reports of the
Regional Institutions; and greater democratization of information to
enable timely and wide-scale sharing of Community policies, strategies,
initiatives and outcomes to all citizens of the Community, utilising
social media and other channels.
The interaction followed the national launch of Barbados ‘I AM
CARICOM’ Campaign involving the nation’s youths on Wednesday 12 February
2020.
I AM CARICOM Campaign
The ‘I AM CARICOM’ Campaign was recognized as an important vehicle that will enable greater visibility and information sharing, increased understanding and participation in the CARICOM construct, governance, policies, strategies and plans of the Caribbean Community. The Campaign places citizens of the Community at the centre, and thus, has been personalized to not only reflect the lived experience of the people of the Region, but to increase understanding among Caribbean people that CARICOM is about all of us, our successes, challenges and progress.
The Campaign seeks to effectively and efficiently reach and engage
all stakeholders, especially the general public, to create awareness and
take ownership of the new Results-focused Community Strategic Plan for
2020, as well as to facilitate continuing dialogue between the
Implementing partners and citizens of the Community where perspectives
and information on the scope, issues, process, expected deliverables,
and benefits and implications for citizens can be shared.
It is designed to utilise the channels of print media, television,
radio, social media, popular entertainment artists and sports
personalities and social media influencers to reach the primary target
audiences of the general public throughout the Community. The Campaign
also seeks to increase the involvement of citizens in the
decision-making processes of the Community by, among other things,
encouraging them to participate in the National Consultations now
underway to inform the development of the Strategic Plan which
identifies the priorities of the Community over the next implementing
period. The Campaign will be implemented over the life of the New
Community Strategic Plan as part of a sustained thrust to ensure that
Community Stakeholders participate fully in efforts aimed at developing
and implementing a results-oriented culture across the Caribbean
Community.
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