As part of a continued effort to promote partnerships towards a climate resilient region, Martinique welcomes, from May 15 to 17, 2019, the sixth Council of Ministers of the Environment of the Member States of the Organization of the States of the Eastern Caribbean (OECS) under the theme “Towards a more sustainable Caribbean society.”
The consolidation of strategic and sustainable partnerships for the promotion of sustainable development in the Eastern Caribbean is at the heart of this sixth meeting.
The environmental issues and the legislative frameworks of the Member States will be presented to validate joint actions. Capacity building for the emergence of creative and innovative projects will also be discussed. In Focus: A Roadmap to Sustainable Development of the OECS, integrating both public and private actors.
Several themes in this sense will be proposed to make our diversity a strength. How to better integrate Non-Independent States into OECS Regional Strategic Initiatives? How to finance together? How to Support and Promote Technological Advances and Research? …Just some of the many questions that will be addressed during these three days.
Five major themes are on the agenda: Harnessing strength from diversity, leadership, coordination and mobilisation; elements of the environmental sustainability agenda; collective creativity and innovation; and the private sector – a critical partner for sustainable development in the OECS.
Last year, COMES 5 was held in Montserrat under the chairmanship of David Osborne, minister of agriculture, trade, lands, housing and the environment of Montserrat with the theme “Building Resilience on the Frontlines of Climate Change.” This year, the high-level meeting will be chaired by Louis Boutrin, elected executive councillor with the environment and energy portfolio for Martinique.
Here is why we are taking to long in getting things like this done. The ministers are not experts and therfore cannot make any meaningful policy. What the OECS should do is send a contingency of experts in science, engineering, technology, environmental etc on a two week assembly to come up with a concrete plan and policy, then send to the respective ministers for review and presentation to thier respective government for adoption and then they can develop the administrative framework for implementation. All these gov officials do is meet sit at a table, in suits, take photos, wine and dine and talk a bunch then nothing gets done. Look at caricom. Fishing, tourism, maritime laws and resources, transportation should be under one OECS/CARICOM legislation long. Bureaucrats playing technocrats. Our politicians are not very bright and the system is leading to Caribbean people suffering.