First CARICOM-Africa Summit to be held September 7

History will be made on Sept. 7, when the inaugural CARICOM-Africa Summit is held.

Kenya will host the virtual event under the theme ‘Unity Across Continents and Oceans: Opportunities for Deepening Integration’. Uhuru Kenyatta, President of Kenya, will chair the Summit.

Plans for Kenya to host a CARICOM and Africa Summit in 2020 had to be put on hold because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Summit follows on the Declaration by the African Union of the Diaspora as the sixth region of Africa.

Participants at the event will include Heads of State and Government of the Caribbean Community and the African Union, Chairs of CARICOM and the African Union Commission, and the Africa Regional Economic Communities (RECs), the Secretaries-General of CARICOM and the Organisation of the African Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS), and the President of Caribbean Development Bank (CDB).

It is anticipated that the deliberations will institutionalise CARICOM-African Union collaboration. It is also expected that there will be agreement to host the Summits of the CARICOM- African Heads of State and Government bi- annually.

Expected outcomes could include greater economic trade and investment opportunities between Africa and the Caribbean; and solidarity in actions to address global challenges including climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic.

The African Union generously agreed to invite CARICOM to be part of the African Medical Supplies Platform (AMSP) for the acquisition of COVID-19 vaccines which allowed the Community to benefit from bulk purchasing. The vaccines began arriving in CARICOM last month.

The Summit follows a series of visits between the leaders of CARICOM and Africa, including the visits by President of Ghana, His Excellency Nana Akufo-Addo, and President Kenyatta to the Region in 2019; a reciprocal visit to Kenya by Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, also in 2019; as well as visits to Namibia and South Africa by Jamaica Prime Minister Andrew Holness in 2018 and Kenya in 2019; and a visit to Ghana by Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister, Dr. Keith Rowley, in 2020.

While in Kenya, Prime Minster Mottley unveiled a plaque for a CARICOM Diplomatic Mission at an ultra-modern business complex in Nairobi.

Chair of CARICOM, Gaston Browne, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, announced recently that the Mission will be opened soon as he committed to strengthening relations between CARICOM and Africa during his term as Chair of the regional integration movement. The Mission, he said, would serve as CARICOM’s platform in Africa with a mandate to develop beneficial relations with all countries on the African continent.

The workings of the Community have been the subject of study visits to the Secretariat by the Southern African Development Community (SADC), and the Secretariat has also hosted the African Union Commission, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Southern African Customs Union (SACU).