(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The Fifteenth Meeting of the CARICOM Council for Human and Social Development (COHSOD) opens on Thursday 19 October at the Le Meridien Pegasus Hotel in Georgetown, Guyana, where officials are expected to mull over a range of issues considered pressing to human development in the Caribbean.

Pointed discussions are expected to ensue on the enabling of vocational education for CARICOM citizens, the assurance of quality education and teachers for this vital sector, as well as preparation of the Caribbean workforce for the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME).

During the course of the three days of deliberations among COHSOD officials, attention will also be given to the progress of poverty reduction programmes in the Caribbean in relation to the Region’s attainment of the United Nations (UN) Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

As the Region seeks to harness its skilled human resources in response to globalisation, the issues of migration and labour are slated to come before the COHSOD, as well as the Region’s utilisation of science and technology to build a Caribbean information society.

In addition, the COHSOD will discuss the issue of HIV/AIDS in relation to the Region’s productive sector, and a programme of family life education to be extended to the primary and secondary level populace of the Caribbean.

As part of the Fifteenth Meeting of the COHSOD, Sir George Alleyne, Special UN Envoy to the Caribbean on HIV/AIDS, Chair of the Caribbean Commission on Health and Development (CCHD) and Chancellor of the University of the West Indies (UWI), will deliver a lecture on The Priorities for Health and Development in the Caribbean on Friday 20 October, 2006. The public lecture will run from 11.30 am to 1 pm at Le Meridien Pegasus Hotel, Georgetown.