(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The 14-member CARICOM Commission on Youth Development is meeting on Monday, for the seventh and last time to add the finishing touches to their much anticipated Report.

Co-chaired by UWI Professor Barry Chevannes and former Youth Ambassador Yldiz Beighle, the Commission, for the next three days, (7-9 December) will be locked into meetings at the Karibe Hotel, Pétionville, Haiti, where they will be crossing the ‘Ts’ and dotting all the ‘Is’ of the draft Report, ensuring that it is appropriately packaged and ready for dissemination to Heads of Government ahead of a special Summit set for Suriname on 29-30 January.

The report is expected to contain suggestions on forward thinking policies and recommendations to improve the well-being of Caribbean Youth.

Established in March 2007 following a mandate from the 27th Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government held in St Kitts and Nevis, the CCYD has been tasked with providing “a comprehensive analysis of challenges and opportunities for youth in the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME); and to make recommendations on how to improve their well-being and empowerment.”

For the past two years, the Commission has been working assiduously conducting comprehensive qualitative and quantitative research among Caribbean Youth, the findings of which have been put through the rigor test in several fora, the most recent being a series of national and region wide consultations from which invaluable feedback was gleaned and is to be fed into the Report.

Jointly funded by Spain and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), this meeting promises to be a very concentrated one as commissioners seek to ensure that the voices of Caribbean youth are adequately represented in the draft Report.