The guarded language of the communiqué emanating from the 23rd Inter-Sessional Meeting of CARICOM Heads of Government, held last week, provides little insight into the deliberations in Paramaribo, following a few weeks of intense criticism of the state of the Community. Indeed, crisis seemed to be the recurring motif in the regional media leading up to the meeting, brought to a head by the report of the Landell Mills consultancy, “Turning Around CARICOM: Proposals to Restructure the Secretariat”, which begins with the sobering, though unsurprising statement, “CARICOM is in crisis.”
In the tradition of CARICOM communiqués, the latest example is as unremarkable as ever, even if it is less verbose than normal. There is no sense of just how much time the assembled leaders devoted to considering the Community’s state of crisis, especially when the numerous other issues addressed in the communiqué are taken into account.
Yet – and this may be wishful thinking – there is a sneaking suspicion that recognition of the true state of affairs may have finally dawned on our leaders in their agreement that the Secretary-General would “begin the process of restructuring of the Secretariat through the recruitment of a change facilitator to support him” and that the Bureau of the Conference of Heads would simultaneously “work with an internal group from the Secretariat to facilitate improving regional governance and implementation,” including “the drawing up of the outline of a five-year strategic plan” for consideration at the next CARICOM summit in St Lucia, in July.
To be fair to the regional leadership, there is probably little else they could have done at this point with regard to the report, its diagnosis of the patient and its prescribed treatment. Although the communiqué states that they considered “in-depth” the report’s recommendations and those in turn made by the Community Council of Ministers, it is highly unlikely that Heads, Ministers or senior officials would have had enough time to study and digest the findings of the report to facilitate a wide-ranging and profound discussion in Paramaribo. Nor, critically, would they have had the benefit of feedback from other stakeholders in the regional integration process, most especially, the regional public.
Happily, the communiqué tells us, albeit in a rather understated way, that the Heads also agreed that the report would be made public. This should be recognised as a major step forward in the workings of CARICOM, which has long been hampered by what the consultants call a “culture of confidentiality,” with the Secretariat’s “default setting” being that “documents and information are classified.” The consultants correctly concluded that this approach to information sharing “mirrors the wider CARICOM construct that tends to be inward looking and closed.” Indeed, they might have also contended that it reflects an organizational culture and approach to regional integration that has for too long been top-down instead of bottom-up, which has, arguably been the major brake on the regional project. The decision to make the report public should therefore be welcomed as a new departure for CARICOM.
Since the Paramaribo meeting, a CARICOM Secretariat press release, dated March 9 and headlined, “CARICOM Secretary-General to start Secretariat Reforms Now!” has highlighted the urgency with which action is to be taken. According to the Chairman of the Conference, Suriname’s President Desi Bouterse, Secretary-General Irwin LaRocque has been directed “to move immediately” to recruit the change facilitator, with St Lucia Prime Minister Dr Kenny Anthony reiterating that the change process should commence “immediately.”
Unfortunately, at the time of going to press, the sense of immediacy coming out of the Inter-Sessional had not yet been reflected in the posting of the report on the CARICOM Secretariat website. One hopes that this will soon be addressed and that, in the new spirit of openness and consultation, an online mechanism will also be put in place for the public to make their views known, in time for the full consideration of the report in July. Needless to say, this period of digestion, assimilation and ventilation should lead to decisiveness when the Heads next meet in St Lucia.
