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Last Updated: Feb 13, 2017 - 1:45:37 AM |
UNITED NATIONS, New York -- His Excellency Dr. Elliston Rahming, Ambassador and
Permanent Representative of The Bahamas to the United Nations and the Organization
of American States (OAS), delivered a statement on “Social Development” on
behalf of the Group of Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Member States of the
United Nations on
Tuesday, October 4, 2016, during the United Nations Third
Committee General Discussion on social development. Following is the full
text of Ambassador Rahming’s remarks:
Madame Chair,
I have the honour to speak on behalf of the fourteen Member States of the
Caribbean Community (CARICOM).
The CARICOM Group congratulates you and the members of the Bureau on your
election to preside over the work of this important Committee during the 71st
session.
We anticipate that your able leadership will facilitate us as we work together
to address a range of social development issues that are of significance to our
respective countries. CARICOM extends its cooperation and support for the
period ahead.
Madame Chair,
On 22 September 2016, a High Level event was convened to commemorate the
thirtieth anniversary of the ‘Declaration on the Right to Development’. During
this important event, countries re-committed themselves to recognising that
every individual and all peoples have the human right to development and to
other fundamental human rights linked to and dependent upon the realisation of
the human right to development.
Madame Chair,
Just last month, during the High Level week of this session, we commemorated
the first anniversary of the adoption of the aspirational plan of action, ‘
Transforming our world: 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (Agenda 2030)
’.
Global in scope, eliminating human deprivations and disparities in human
progress, is at the heart of Agenda 2030. It recognises that development is a
comprehensive process involving sustainable improvement of the well-being of
all individuals and peoples; that development should aim for the realisation of
human rights and for the greatest possible freedom and dignities of every human
being.
The Caribbean Community has been and continues to be a strong proponent of
these and other important instruments that recognise that every person should
have the opportunity to grow, develop their own skills and contribute to their
families and communities in a meaningfully way; that healthy, well-educated and
trained persons are better equipped to meet their basic needs and to be
successful. In fact, if social development is about improving the well-being of
every individual so that they can reach their full potential, this means
investing in people.
The Caribbean Community Secretariat, particularly through its Human Development
programme, has been working with Member States, Community Institutions,
regional and international partners and community organisations to create and
carry out initiatives that facilitate its constituents to fulfill their
potential. These major areas of intervention include youth development, investing
in education and mainstreaming the Community’s disabilities agenda.
YOUTH DEVELOPMENT
Madame Chair,
More than sixty percent of the population of the Caribbean Community is under
the age of thirty. Our region considers its young people as vital assets, with
the proven capacity to act as agents of social change. The youth, therefore,
should be empowered to realise their potential, if development is to be
sustainable.
As such, the CARICOM Secretariat, which delivers the region’s youth development
work principally through the CARICOM Youth Development Action Plan, has been
working towards ensuring that young people are empowered through, youth
entrepreneurship, leadership training and the engagement of at-risk youths,
among others.
For example, in May 2016 in Antigua and Barbuda, several CARICOM out-of-school
youth benefitted from training in entrepreneurship. Part of the CARICOM/Spain
Project, ‘Support for Reducing Youth on Youth Violence in Schools and
Communities in CARICOM Member States’, the aim of the project is to build the
capacity of out-of-school youth, and in so doing, increase their ability to earn.
The youth project recognises the key role that entrepreneurship education plays
in promoting unique and valuable life skills, as well as career pathways. Two
additional workshops took place in St. Lucia and in St. Kitts and Nevis.
INVESTING IN EDUCATION
Madame Chair,
In CARICOM, we believe that education has the power to transform lives. An
educated, literate and diverse workforce has positive implications for
creativity, innovation and productivity. Education is a key driver of
sustainable development and is recognised as having the potential role to build
resilience and to combat issues of vulnerability, particularly those faced by
small states. These include issues such as climate change, migration, mobility,
and financing. In short, investing in education is investing in the future.
For this reason, the Community is committed, through its Education
sub-programme, to equipping its people with equitable, high quality,
fit-for-purpose education, in order to support their right to work towards achieving
a better quality of life, and simultaneously, to equip the region with the
knowledge and skills that will enable it to compete in the twenty-first century
global environment.
While we are proud of the education gains made in the region over the years,
such as achieving near universal access to primary and secondary education and
increased tertiary educational opportunities, these gains are vitiated by
worrisome levels of crime and violence. These concerns are compounded by, and
arguably propelled by, high levels of unemployment and under-employment,
alongside skills gaps.
The Community anticipates that the implementation of its education
sub-programme, as endorsed by Heads of Government in 2014, will result in
positive changes.
Meantime, CARICOM looks forward to the launching of the new Caribbean
Development Bank Education and Training Policy and Strategy later this year. It
is expected that the new education development agenda, which includes input
from key Caribbean stakeholders, will focus on the existing disparities within
the region’s current education systems, and in doing so, assist Caribbean
countries to achieve positive learning outcomes and contribute to building a
high-quality knowledge-based economy in the region.
MAINSTREAMING THE COMMUNITY’S DISABILITIES AGENDA
Madame Chair,
People with disabilities within the Caribbean Community continue to be the most
vulnerable. They face abuse, neglect, social marginalisation, under-development
and extreme poverty.
As a part of its human development agenda, the Caribbean Community is committed
to ensuring that persons with disabilities are able to realise their dreams and
likewise to participate as full and productive members of society.
As a result, the Pétion-Ville Declaration, was produced. An outcome of the
CARICOM High-Level Ministerial on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
signed in Haiti in December 2013, the regionally-accepted declaration
reiterates political commitment to ensuring disability-inclusive societies for
all and calls for the appointment of a CARICOM Rapporteur on Disability, among
others.
The appointment of a CARICOM Rapporteur on Disability is intended to promote
modern international standards of care and treatment, to promote positive
change in attitudes, perception and behaviours and to develop laws and services
for the protection and advancement of the rights relative to differently-able
persons.
CARICOM views the upcoming commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities as an opportune time for
advancing the regions thrust to shift the world towards a more inclusive
trajectory.
Madame Chair,
Development is a comprehensive human process the aim of which is to achieve a
better future. Human beings are the primary source and ultimate determinant of
the development process.
Madame Chair,
Though the countries of the Caribbean Community face considerable challenges,
some man-made and others Acts of God, our Community will continue to work to
accelerate the pace of social development because we believe that every citizen
should have the opportunity to contribute to, and share in, the region’s
economic, social and cultural prosperity and to realise their full potential
with guaranteed human rights and social justice.
Thank you Madame Chair.
© Copyright 2016 by thebahamasweekly.com
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