From Jamaica Observer

UNITED NATIONS (CMC) – The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) took its case for a reversal of the existing criteria for development financing to the United Nations urging the international community to re-examine the policies under which most Caribbean countries have been designated as Middle Income states.

“Adequate financing is critical to our region’s sustainable development,” said Bahamas Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell, as he deputised for Prime Minister Perry Christie, the CARICOM Chairman, at the high-level Thematic Debate on Strengthening cooperation between the United Nations and regional and sub-regional organizations international community on Monday.

Mitchell told the conference that while CARICOM had adopted several strategies to ensure its socio-economic development, “the United Nations system itself must lend its weight to securing reliable, accessible and adequate financing for development of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) such as those of CARICOM.

“New approaches are required for development financing. As it now stands, CARICOM states are particularly affected by graduation into Middle Income status, primarily on the basis of (gross domestic product) GDP-per-capita.

“This designation denies access to grant and concessionary financing at a time when the effects of global financial and economic crisis still resonates in the region and members are strapped with particularly high debt burdens.”

Mitchell said that there is no doubt that GDP alone is an inadequate measure of development, particularly given the region’s vulnerability to natural disasters and climate change, including sea level rise.

“We have said this repeatedly and cannot sufficiently underscore this fact. For CARICOM Member states, countering climate change and sea level rise is a matter of priority. It is critical to our survival,” he told the conference, adding that the region was looking forward to a successful outcome to COP21 in Paris in December 2015 “with the conclusion of a legally binding agreement which would lead to the stabilization of global average temperature to well below 1.5 degrees Celsius.

“Anything less will subject SIDS to irreparable loss and damage,” he added.

Mitchell said that CARICOM recognizes and encourages the initiatives of the United Nations and others to take fully into account, and to give weight to the vulnerability of SIDS in determining grant and concessionary financing.

He said the importance of this approach is evident in the statement of the President of the Caribbean Development Bank, which confirms that “seven Caribbean countries are among the top 10 countries, which, relative to their GDP, suffered the highest average economic losses from climate-related disasters during the period 1993-2012”.

“In advancing our proposals in the negotiations for the Post-2015 Development Agenda, CARICOM joins with SIDS in advocating that the agenda incorporates broader measures of progress to complement GDP as an indicator of development. We will continue to cooperate closely with the United Nations and its agencies in this, and other areas.”

Mitchell said one such area is strengthening data collection and statistical analysis in CARICOM member states.

“The provision of technical cooperation and support to enhance capacity in this area, as well as in other regional priority areas identified in General Assembly resolution 69/265 entitled “Cooperation between the United Nations and the Caribbean Community”, adopted on 16 January 2015, will be critical to our implementation of the Post-2015 Development Agenda. We call for the organization’s continued support.”

The Bahamian foreign minister said the global community is at a critical juncture, focussing as it is on a wide range of issues demanding new paradigms for addressing global priorities.

“Building and fostering effective partnerships is pivotal to the success of our strategies and priorities moving forward. This partnership should mean a coordinated effort across all agencies in the UN and Hemispheric system so that each is accountable to the other, to avoid duplications of effort and resources and to ensure that efforts on all fronts are coordinated.

“We are particularly concerned about the work done for youth development, human resources generally but particularly in solving the problem of joblessness and a sense of despair amongst our young people.

“CARICOM recognizes the strong partnership developed between the region and the United Nations and its Specialized Agencies, Funds and Programmes.”

Mitchell said that the 15-member CARICOM grouping stands ready to continue to work with the United Nations, and in this regard, looks forward to the exchange of views with Secretary General Ban Ki-moon at the forthcoming CARICOM Heads of Government Meeting in July 2015 in Barbados.

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