-Carrington

CARICOM Secretary-General Edwin Carrington has disclosed that the Community will be engaged for the long-term in Haiti’s recovery and reconstruction, a news release from the secretariat said.

Speaking at the CARICOM Secretariat at Turkeyen on Wednesday at the Thirteenth Meeting of the Budget Committee, Secretary-General Carrington said that the secretariat had moved to establish a “dedicated unit to co-ordinate the short and medium term involvement of the Community in the recovery, reconstruction and development of Haiti.”

That mandate was handed down by the Bureau of Heads of Government, which met in Paramaribo, Suriname on January 29.

According to the release, Carrington said that this decision by the Bureau was an indication of the Community’s “commitment and engagement” towards Haiti as it emerged out of the ruins of the January 12 earthquake disaster. “We are fully seized not only of the financial and economic challenges facing our member states, but also of the implications of our short, medium and long term involvement in the rehabilitation and development of Haiti as indeed of all our member states,” Carrington stated.

In that process, he added, the spirit of eagerness of the youth–avidly demonstrated at the just-concluded CARICOM Summit on Youth Development–was the Community’s greatest asset.

Carrington said further that he took “great heart” and felt “great hope” during the Summit on Youth with the determination of the Haitian youth who participated in the forum. “The determination of the Haitians to be there and to participate fully mirrored that of their peers in the Com-munity, whom he said exhibited tremendous interest in   the future of CARICOM,” Carrington said.

He noted also that the spirit of enthusiasm and urgency of the youth of the Community must be “recognised and reflected” in the decisions of the CARICOM Heads of Government with respect to the governance of the Community at their upcoming inter-sessional meeting in Dominica, the release concluded.