Minister of People Empowerment and Elder Affairs, Kirk Humphrey says the issues facing Latin America and the Caribbean are complex and dialogue and reflection are crucial to finding solutions.
He made the comments on Thursday at the opening ceremony of the XVI Ministerial Forum for Development in Latin America, held at the Wyndham Grand Barbados, Sam Lord’s Castle Resort – the first time the meeting is being hosted in the Caribbean.
The forum seeks to address issues surrounding environmental vulnerabilities, socio-economic challenges and other problems that significantly impact Latin America and the Caribbean.
Humphrey said: “This theme that we have chosen, Resilience and Action, Social Policies to Navigate Uncertainties in Latin America and the Caribbean, was not chosen by happenstance. This came after profound reflection and discussions about what the issues are and our peculiar vulnerabilities in the region and how we best position ourselves to be able to confront these issues.”
The minister noted that many of those issues were being driven by external forces. He identified some of them as “the climate crisis and the consequential disasters that it causes the Caribbean region; the geopolitical tensions and the consequential inflation that it is causing the region-Latin America and the Caribbean; the inequitable financial architecture and the consequential rise in costs and the difficulty to assess finance to be able to do work and to make an impact in our social space”.
Minister of People Empowerment and Elder Affairs, Kirk Humphrey. (HG)
Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Achim Steiner said the Caribbean and Latin America had common issues that negatively impacted their social development.
He added that it was necessary to build resilience, not only in terms of the environment but as it relates to social issues.
“This is an era of disruption. We are seeing a world that is returning to conflict and competition and wars, with more people displaced, more refugees, more suffering than we have seen for decades,” he said.
“We are not at a glorious moment of sustainable development advancements and, therefore, this is a moment where [we must] reflect on what is going wrong and also where are the pathways for moving forward within each one of our country’s nations [and] communities.”
The regional forum is being hosted by the Government of Barbados, UNDP, and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).
This gathering builds on the discussions initiated at the XIII Ministerial Forum in Antigua and Barbuda in 2021, which discussed disasters and social protection systems in the context of protracted crises.
The expected outcome of the forum is a Ministerial Declaration that aims to be a roadmap for transformative policy action and impactful initiatives that transcend boundaries, ultimately steering the region toward a more equitable and resilient future. (SZB)
