Dominica Government endorses CARICOM Civil Society Consultations

Civil Society Representatives at the Dominica Consultations

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) – Hon. Colin McIntyre Dominica’s Minister of Employment, Trade, Industry and Diaspora Affairs, told some fifty representatives of Civil Society organizations in Roseau that the Government of the Commonwealth of Dominica endorses the initiative of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Civil Society Consultations now underway. Minister McIntyre hoped that the Consultations in Dominica, 11-12 October 2010, would lead toward the governance systems of the Caribbean Community becoming more user-friendly to Civil Society.

The Minister’s remarks were in the context of his presentation, ‘Government/Civil Society Collaboration for Social and Economic Development in Dominica’ at the Dominica Consultations in the “CARICOM Civil Society Project 2010.”

The “CARICOM Civil Society Project 2010” aims to identify opportunities for dialogue between CARICOM Member States governments and Civil Society on key national and regional issues, and to assist Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) in identifying and participating in opportunities in the development process.

From left: Hon Colin McIntyre, Minister of Employment, Trade, Industry and Diaspora Affairs; Tricia Barrow Hazelwood, Senior Foreign Policy Officer, CARICOM Secretariat and Project Manager for the Consultations, and Mr. Edward Lambert, National Authorising Officer for the European Development Fund in Dominica

The project is funded by the European Union under the Ninth European Development Fund (EDF), implemented by the CARICOM Secretariat and facilitated by the Caribbean Policy Development Centre.

Minister McIntyre, while recognizing the ‘critical role’ of civil society to the Caribbean Community, acknowledged that this importance was not unique to CARICOM, but integral to groupings such as the European Union and CARIFORUM. In the context of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME), and the CARICOM Competition Commission the Minister indicated that the Competition Bill would be tabled in the Dominica House of Assembly in 2011.

The Dominica consultations follow those held in this series in Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, Saint Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago.