UWI-CARICOM COLLABORATION

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UWI-CARICOM COLLABORATION

• Seven strong years and a luminous future

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Backdrop

• Studies have long concluded that CARICOM
• needs to collaborate with its associate regional
• institutions for building a robust regional
• organization in order to survive and function
• effectively in the new world dispensation a
• dispensation which must depend on the
• intelligent utilization of collective resources.
• This position was echoed in the Grande Anse
• declaration and by the Conference of the Heads
• of Government, Montego Bay 1997, and in the
• 2003 Rose Hall Declaration on Governance and
• Integrated Development.

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The Signing

• Within this context the CARICOM Secretariat and
  the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus
  signed a
• Memorandum of Understanding in December 1999
  which set the Terms of Reference for a
  relationship
• designed to focus the energies and know how of
  both entities into providing the regional
  leadership
• with the sort of vital information that such an
  alliance could provide.

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Establishing UWI-CARICOM

• The formal establishment of the UWI-CARICOM
  Project was a ground-breaking
• initiative. The Project pursued its objectives
  with ingenuity impressing upon UWI the
• benefits which would accrue to it, were it to go
  beyond the scope of the Agreement.

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What Does UWI-CARICOM Project Do

• It infuses the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and
  the global population with pertinent perspectives
  on CARICOM and the work of its Secretariat
  through information gathered by rigorous
  research and contained in invaluable
  publications, and radio and television
  documentaries
• Exposes the distinguishing attributes of the
  Caribbean people through cultural showcasing.

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Information Giving

• Disseminating information via mass media,
  research and documentation centres, and
  university, national, school and community
  libraries.
• Utilising the mass media for publishing or
  broadcasting a finished product and depending
  upon documentation centres to store documents for
  ready access.
• Developing and maintaining contacts within the
  Region, who can utilise the products of the
  Project and facilitate snowballing in the spread
  of information.

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Using Regions Resources 1

• Skills Database
• UWI-CARICOM Project maintains the continuous
  development of a Database of the Skills and
  talents available in both institutions. The
  purpose of this skills inventory is to examine
  the Secretariats gap in skills and highlight
  those available at the University, from which the
  Secretariat could benefit. This exercise involves
  studying the strategic plans of the Secretariat
  and UWI, the Secretariats work programmes,
  organisational charts, job descriptions of senior
  positions, inventory of the academic staff of the
  UWI, and review of the institutions research
  projects.

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Using Regions Resources 2

• Caribbean Executive Services (CARES)
• Being aware of human resource needs and
  challenges in the Region, the UWI-CARICOM Project
  has developed a concept to establish an Executive
  Service Agency to function as a clearing house
  for the skills and expertise of retired Caribbean
  nationals. This project is currently awaiting
  funding in order to become operational.

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Flagship Our Publications

• A high priority for the UWI-CARICOM Project,
  through its productions, is to steer political
  elites and other decision and policy makers
  towards making informed choices for the benefit
  of the Region. Just as important for the Project
  is reaching nationals of the Community at all
  levels to aid essential understanding of how the
  integrative process will impact their lives.
• The content of every book, paper, journal,
  documentary or cultural programme produced, is
  intended to awaken the consciousness of CARICOM
  people into achieving the vision of integration.

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Publications Genesis and Transformation

• These publications chronicle the genesis and
  historical transformation of the Integration
  Movement and document the challenges and
  obstacles confronting it over the course of its
  transformation and the response of Member States
  to those challenges.

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Publications Scholarly Guidance

• UWI-CARICOM Projects publications
• also provide scholarly, analytical and
• insightful guidance for the future
• direction of the integrative Movement in
• the re-formulated global order as well as
• offer mechanisms and courses of action
• needed to respond to the current
• international realities.

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Publications Fostering Integration

• CARICOM Integration has been tackled on various
  fronts by the majority of the Projects books and
  journals, such as
• CARICOM Options Towards Full Integration
• Into the World Economy
• Integrate of Perish (1st 2nd Editions)
• Re-inventing CARICOM The Road to a New
  Integration
• Integration CARICOMs Key to Prosperity
• Caribbean Imperatives Regional Governance and
  Integrated Development
• CARICOM Appropriate Adaptation to a Changing
  Global Environment
• The CARICOM System Basic Instruments
• The Triumph of the Caribbean Spirit and
  Imagination Selected Speeches - Professor the
  Honourable Rex Nettleford
• The Caribbean Community Beyond Survival
• Globalisation A Calculus of Inequality
• CARICOM Unity In Adversity
• Governance in the Age of Globalisation

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Documentary Integrate or Perish

• As the Caribbean Community celebrated its 30th
  Anniversary in 2003, the UWI-CARICOM Project
  considered it opportune to capture the evolution
  of the regional body and seminal contributions of
  the legendary leaders who have engineered its
  growth. To this end, the Project commissioned the
  production of a television and radio documentary
  based on the publication entitled "Integrate or
  Perish Perspectives of Leaders of the
  Integration Movement" edited by Professor Kenneth
  O. Hall.
• This documentary brings to the viewing and
  listening public the historical development and
  evolution of the integration process. It allows
  for Caribbean Peoples and those around the world
  to witness Caribbean Leaders as they articulated
  their ideas and ideals and expressed their desire
  for political and psychological freedom. It also
  reveals how they determined the paths to be
  pursued to stay on course even in the face of
  challenges.

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Documentary Integrate or Perish

• The three-part programme structure of the
  documentary corresponds to the following periods
  and issues
• 1963 - 1973 Genesis of the Caribbean Integration
  Movement leading to the birth of the Caribbean
  Community.
• 1974 - 1984 The Impact of the World Economic
  Crisis on the Caribbean Community and the
  instruments designed by our leaders to guarantee
  the Region's survival.
• 1985 - 2003 The challenges posed by the changed
  international environment and our resolve to be
  an effective partner in the new global order.
• The documentary presents poignant images of the
  era of the founding fathers of the movement and
  encapsulates their contributions and those of
  their successors to the growth and development of
  the Caribbean as a unified Region.

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Papers

• Foreign Policy Options for CARICOM An Analytical
  Review 
• by Professor Stephen Vascianne
• Compliance, Enforcement and Dispute Settlement in
  CARICOM 
• by Joseph Farier
• New Trends in Economic Integration The Emergence
  of Regional Multinationals and Intra-Regional
  Flows
• by Dr. Trevor Farrell
• Mexico CARICOM Relations
• CARICOMs Political, Economic and Hemispheric
  Relations Some Reflections
• Sir Dwight OECS at the Centre
• by Wesley Gibbings
• New Trends in Economic Integration The Emergence
  of Regional Multinationals and Intra-Regional
  Flows
• by Dr. Trevor Farrell

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Cultural Showcase

• The UWI and CARICOM
• institutions intend to use
• every platform of life to
• promote unity among all
• nationals of the Region.
• Each Member State has
• its peculiarities, but
• together make a
• distinctive blend of rich
• culture a heritage that
• remains undiluted!

University Singers (UWI) performing at the
National Cultural Centre, Guyana
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University Singers

• In December 2000, the UWI Mona
• Campus choir The University
• Singers, toured Guyana under the
• auspices of Caribbean Fellowship
• Incorporated. The group belted out
• their songs with the grace and spunk
• that can only be claimed by
• Jamaicans. And Guyanese indulged!
• 2000 was just a foretaste of the grand
• cultural Harmony excursions to be
• generated by UWI-CARICOM in the
• future.

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Towards the Future

• Both the University of the West Indies and the
  CARICOM Secretariat are acutely aware of the
  tremendous benefits of institutional
  collaboration as an enabler in meeting the
  multifaceted challenges which confront Member
  States at regional and international levels.

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Collaborative Entrenchment

• The Heads of Government were so convinced that
  collaboration was the key to enhancing the
  collective capabilities of these two institutions
  to support Member States in the realization of
  the Caribbean Single Market and Single Economy
  that they have agreed on a range of areas in
  functional cooperation with special significance
  for poverty reduction, social protection, human
  resource development, health, information and
  communications technology development, use and
  connectivity issues for special research
  attention
• The call for the two institutions to
  systematically engage in the conduct of informed
  assessments of options to be pursued in the
  realization of regional objectives and full
  examination of the implications of decisions by
  regional bodies is now entrenched.

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Collaborative Entrenchment

• Steps are now being finalized for the current
  arrangement between UWI and the CARICOM
  Secretariat to be broadened to reflect the
  decision of the Conference of Heads of Government
  at their 27th Meeting in July 2006.
• The new and expanded arrangement makes provision
  for the two institutions to engage in
  identification of issues for joint or
  complementary activities, studies or projects
  within the areas mentioned earlier, taking
  account of issues such as feasibility,
  manageability and time frames recommended by
  Community bodies.

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A Luminous Future

• The current arrangement will undoubtedly result
  in, among other benefits, a greater number of
  vigorously researched position papers designed
  to inform important issues within international
  forums, enhance the performance of the University
  of the West Indies in their main negotiating
  theatres and other international fora.