(CARIFORUM Directorate, CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The Project Management Committee of the Regional Technical Cooperation Facility recently conducted its review of the 11th EDF EU-funded Regional Technical Cooperation Facility (RTCF) at the CARICOM Secretariat headquarters in Georgetown, Guyana.

Committee members are drawn from the CARIFORUM Directorate and other Directorates of the CARICOM Secretariat. Representatives of two members of the CARIFORUM troika, Barbados and Belize, participated virtually. The Troika comprises the past, the present and the incoming chair of CARIFORUM.

The meeting was chaired by the Director General of CARIFORUM, Ms. Alexis Downes-Amsterdam, who emphasised the Committee’s role in guiding the implementation of the RTCF. Ms. Downes Amsterdam noted that support provided through the Facility has helped the CARIFORUM Directorate and senior officials strengthen wider Caribbean Cooperation and deepen regional integration.

She highlighted the revision of the CARIFORUM Rules of Procedure, actions to operationalise the Samoa Agreement and efforts to develop a framework for technical and political dialogue between CARIFORUM and the wider Caribbean including Curacao, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, St. Maarten, and St. Martin as some of the recent initiatives supported by the Facility.

The RTCF is one of the components under the 11th EDF Wider Caribbean Cooperation Programme aimed at addressing issues hampering the successful implementation of the Caribbean Regional Indicative Programme as it relates to wider Caribbean cooperation and integration, as well as facilitating planning of post Cotonou development programmes.

The RTCF is also supporting capacity-building on issues under the CARIFORUM-EU Economic Partnership Agreement through the attachment of national EPA Coordinators to the CARIFORUM Directorate and EPA Units in CARIFORUM States.