CARICOM Secretariat partners with CESO: More than 80 staff members trained

Eighty CARICOM Secretariat staffers received certificates on Thursday, 8 September, 2016, after an intensive week-long training on Writing with Impact. The professional development initiative, spearheaded by the Secretariat’s Office of the Deputy Secretary-General in collaboration with the Canadian Executive Service Organisation (CESO), updated staff on current developments in the field.

The training was also intended to bring staff of all levels from all directorates of the Secretariat to promote and benefit from the “cross-fertilisation of ideas”, as the Secretariat’s Deputy Secretary-General, Dr. Manorma Soeknandan, explained in brief remarks.

“We have creative and talented people in the Secretariat who take initiatives. Once given the opportunity, we can work and produce in teams,” she said.

Dr. Soeknandan thanked Ms. Ann Persaud, CESO’s representative in Guyana for the opportunity to partner. She emphasised CESO’s role in making the training possible and advised that there will be an evaluation of the expected outputs of the training, in three months.

Speaking also was the CARICOM Secretary-General, Ambassador Irwin LaRocque, who expressed appreciation for CESO’s partnership with the Secretariat and a desire for future partnerships in other projects. In her remarks later, Ms Persaud returned thanks for the Secretariat’s partnership. She echoed the Secretary-General’s sentiment for future collaboration, noting that CESO’s mandate supported economic development across the world in a three-way partnership of volunteers, organisations and CESO.

The Secretary-General underscored the importance of the training to the work of the Secretariat and the Community. According to him, “the training is part of the Secretariat’s ongoing Reform Process to make us more effective and efficient in the delivery of service to our Community”.

“The decision is as good as effectively communicating the information about that decision”, he said.

Amb LaRocque thanked Dr. Soeknandan for being the “driving force” behind the initiative and challenged staff to implement what was learnt.

Other speakers at the brief ceremony chaired by Senior Project Officer, Resource Mobilisation and Technical Assistance Section, Mr. Michael Norris, included Mr. Gerald Crick, Deputy Programme Manager of the Human Resource Section. Mr. Crick referred to the constraint of limited resources for training and development and encouraged staff to transfer the knowledge and skills gained to increase their productivity.

CESO volunteer, Ms. Patrice Palmer, who conducted the training, shared her perspective on the sessions. She highlighted several strengths: leadership, resourcefulness, creativity, focused, analytical, cooperative, forward thinking, that she observed in the sessions and encouraged staff, as individuals and as teams, to continue to use these in their work “to make an impact in this Region”.

The CESO is one of Canada’s leading volunteer-based organisations. Founded in 1967, its mission is “to build capacity in governance and economic development through the transfer of knowledge and skills by Volunteer Advisers”.