(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana)     The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) will host its first Regional Interfaith Conference on Monday. The conference will be held in Antigua and Barbuda at the Jolly Beach Resort and Spa. It will be preceded by an Inter-faith Service to be held on Sunday.
The event is targeted at religious leaders of all faiths practised through-out the Community and in particular, the leaders of national and regional umbrella Faith-based Organisations (FBOs). The Conference is being convened in response to a request from the Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Honourable Dr. Baldwin Spencer, that such an event take place prior to the Twenty-Fifth Inter-Sessional Meeting of the Conference of Heads to be held next month in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
The purpose of the conference is to reignite the spirit of fellowship among the Community’s religious leaders. It also aims to develop a framework for a regional consultative process to facilitate appropriate engagement of FBOs in the decision-making process in the Community. 
It is hoped that the conference will help to contribute to the consultative process currently being undertaken to elaborate a Strategic Plan for CARICOM and begin a process among FBOs aimed at transforming the social fabric of the Community. Attendees at the conference are also expected to discuss the formation of an organisation to tackle hunger and poverty across the Community.