Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders ended their four-day summit in Guyana on Wednesday night, paving the way for possible elections to be held in Haiti by 2025 and establishing mechanisms to advance the objectives of regional resilience and growth.
Host and CARICOM chairman, Guyana’s President Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali told the end of the summit news conference that “it was a very hectic agenda” in which the leaders accomplished four weeks of work in four days.
He said the leaders in the end “a carefully crafted strategy on many important issues of immense concern to the region”.
Ali said it was important for the meeting to have spent a significant amount of time discussing the issue of Haiti saying “it was time well worth it because of how important Haiti is for the region and how critical it is for us to find a solution to the holistic advancement of the people of Haiti.
He said most of the focus were on the political and governance issues and “finding a parallel mechanism through which the political governance issues …are also addressed simultaneously with the security and humanitarian issue.”
Bahamas Prime Minister Phillip Davis told reporters that the situation in Haiti “is truly a terrible” one, adding “Haiti is haemorrhaging.
“When you look at the amount of deaths in the month of January, it is noted that there were more deaths in Haiti that occurred in the war of Ukraine and Russia. So that tells us of the depths of the suffering that is occurring among the people in Haiti,” Davis told reporters.
“Much of our sessions were on the Haitian crisis and trying to bring some resolution,” he added.
The regional leaders agreed that another meeting on Haiti would be held soon and while initial reports had indicated that it would be held in Jamaica within the next two weeks, it seems that no consensus on the venue has yet been reached.
Ali said the issue of Haiti was a “very difficult task,” as he recognised the work Jamaica has been doing in coordinating efforts, saying “you have to understand the situation in Haiti.
“I want to recognise Prime Minister (Dr Ariel) Henry in this frank and open discussion…it was a very difficult discussion… and I want to recognise his role in making commitments and understanding the very statement that we made here that applies to all the stakeholders.
“We are urging that each stakeholder must recognise that they will not obtain all they want, but Haiti must obtain what it needs,” he said, adding that while he would like the follow-up meeting to be held tomorrow, it is urgent and “it must happen with great intensity”.
He said the prime ministers involved would have to agree to postpone or re-organise their schedules “but this is of such importance to the region and the region has to provide the leadership on this issue”.
However, the regional leaders agreed that the situation in French-speaking member countries has been exacerbated by the need for consensus among the political shareholders, civil society, the private and religious sectors and the government of Haiti.
Davis said that in this regard the CARICOM heads called on all concerned to make the necessary concessions to arrive at a resolution of the political impasse.
He said the regional leaders including Henry, held discussions with key international partners including Canada, the United States, France, the United Kingdom and the United Nations on the situation in Haiti.
They also received an update on the situation from former St Lucia prime minister Dr Kenny Anthony, who chairs the three-member Eminent Persons Group (EPG) set up by CARICOM to help negotiate a solution to the situation in Haiti.
“In the course of a frank and in-depth discussion on the situation in Haiti, the CARICOM Heads expressed their deep concern over the continued deterioration of the security, humanitarian and political situation and the continued delay in overcoming the political stalemate, which has blocked the possibility of free and fair elections.
“CARICOM Heads underlined the critical and immediate need for a clear path forward which should be participatory and inclusive,” he added.
The regional leaders recognised the leadership of Prime Minister Henry, who came to power following the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in July 2021, and who has “committed to major steps to move the political process forward, including the holding of general elections to restore constitutional government and authority no later than August 31, 2025.
Davis said that an electoral needs gap assessment team will be put together led by CARICOM and the United Nations with the support of Canada, USA, and the OAS by 31 March 2024 to support planning and efforts of the relevant institutions to be established in Haiti.
Barbados Prime Minister, Mia Mottley, who has led responsibility for the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) that allows for the free movement of skills, services, labour and goods across the region, said “this is a case of how do we resume normal business” given that the last few years had been difficult for the region.
“We have moved from crisis management to crisis management to crisis management, but we are at stage now where we have to resume our normal economic growth trajectory,” she said, adding that means confronting the issue that finance is oxygen and the framework for the single market and single economy has to be put…on the front burner…”
She said that the Caribbean Development Fund (CDF) was established by the treaty governing the regional integration movement to be able to recognise that in a single market there will be winners and losers.
“This Caribbean Development Fund has already benefited from two funding cycles, but we are now about to approach the third replenishment…and to that extent we were able to settle among ourselves…the contribution cycle for the next few years.”
But she noted that even as the CDF is being replenished “it is not going to be enough’ noting that the region is facing the prospect of building up both resilience and adaptation to better face the climate crisis that is already bedevilling the region.
As a result, regional leaders have agreed t establish a working group on financing for Caribbean development that will be convened by Guyana’s Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo to address the “matter of mobilising financing…to be intermediated through the Blue-Green Investment Bank and the CDF to advance the objectives of regional resilience and growth”.
The working group is expected to conclude its work within four months with a view to reporting to the next CARICOM summit to be held in Grenada in July.
The Blue-Green Investment Bank is being established by Barbados, whose mandate is exclusively on investments aimed at advancing adaption safeguarding resilience in the region and individual member states.
