(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana)     Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the Caribbean Forum of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (CARIFORUM), Ambassador Irwin LaRocque, on Thursday urged CARIFORUM Ministers to ensure projects agreed upon address challenges faced by Member States.

He was speaking during the Twenty-first Meeting of the CARIFORUM Council of Ministers held in Grenada on October 31, 2013. 

Ambassador LaRocque said the Meeting was happening at a time when some CARIFORUM Member States were still recovering from the global economic crisis. He noted that most Member States, while facing these challenges, also had seen a decline in concessionary funding due to graduation or differentiation.

The Secretary-General further outlined that due to differentiation now being applied by the European Union (EU), the National Indicative Programmes of many Member States had been reduced, even though the Regional Indicative Programme had increased. He said it was therefore important that programming of resources be informed by the Joint CARIFORUM-EU Strategy.

Ambassador LaRocque said that CARIFORUM should welcome the idea of the introduction of multi-country programming, which would allow two or more Member States to have a common programme that would qualify as a regional programme.

“I believe that we must welcome this innovation since it provides the scope for our Member States to secure direct benefits from the Regional Programme. We must, however, ensure that the value of resources to be allocated to multi-country programmes within each priority area is determined by this Council,” he said.

Speaking to priority areas for financing, the Secretary-General said human capacity development within the public and private sectors must be specially considered. According to him, without human capacity, CARIFORUM as a region could not achieve global competitiveness or build sustainable economies.

Secretary-General LaRocque said further, that by the end of December, the Region would have completed, well ahead of other ACP regions, the programming of the entire amount to be allocated under the 10th EDF. He said every effort must be made to draw down the 10^th EDF resources in a timely manner so that the region’s implementation record could be improved.