BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC—Barbados is hosting the three-day XVI Ministerial Forum for Development in Latin America and the Caribbean on Wednesday. This forum is being regarded as a critical step in addressing opportunities for building resilience and sustainability against future shocks to the region’s development.
“The region is under tremendous pressure, development is under pressure, democracies are under pressure, and this is a space to discuss and exchange in a very pragmatic and concrete way,’ said the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean, Michelle Muschett.
“How can we adjust those escape valves to use the pressure that we feel in these times in the region to foster and accelerate development and strengthening democracies in our region?”.
Delegations from more than 20 governments in Latin America and the Caribbean are participating in the two-day forum on how to accelerate and protect progress toward human development, social inclusion, and resilience.
Muschett said the UNDP is looking forward to facilitating the discussions and conversations alongside the Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLAC) and the Barbados government as co-organizers of the forum.
Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Minister Kerrie Symmonds said the forum is critical in helping Barbados and the region discuss and propose ways to build resilience and sustainability in their development plans.
“This significant conference for Latin America and the Caribbean, which they’re here to attend, is going to be speaking, in considerable measure, to the question of resilience on the part of small states and our capacity to make sure that that resilience also reflects not just the theory of the financial challenges that we face in the country and the need to adjust to and adapt in the context of climate but what it means for the average human being, man and woman, in the street.
“[And], how this resonates in the classrooms for our children, how it resonates in the way in which we plan our housing development for the future, public transportation, the whole range, or cross-section of areas where there’s a need now for us to use the language of resilience as we plan out the future of the Barbados society and Barbados economy, and as I say, society, let me not for one second forget the importance of gender balance in this,” he added.
The UNDP Administrator, Achim Steiner, who also attended the forum, said the event is significant, indicating that the sessions will also focus on climate change adaptation.
“We are looking forward to not only some very constructive and fruitful discussions in the regional conference and forum but also with representatives in your government and our partners in projects and programs here in Barbados,” he added.
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