CARICOM at 40: An alternative agenda

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - By the time this commentary is read, heads of government of the 15-nation Caribbean Community and Common Market (Caricom) will have celebrated the 40th anniversary of the inter-governmental organisation. There is cause for celebration, but there is also reason for lamentation. Heads of government will have rightly pointed to many areas of common services in which there has been success in building on inherited institutions and creation of others. But there has been weakening of inherited institutions such as the University of the West Indies (UWI) that should by now have consolidated itself as a globally-respected institution of research and development. Unfortunately, the three campuses of the university seem set on a course of competition with each other, replicating schools in various disciplines that squander resources and make for poor planning and flawed outputs.