Caricom chair pledges people-centred integration push

Prime Min­is­ter of Saint Lu­cia, Philip Pierre, who is in­com­ing chair­man of Cari­com, has pledged to steer the re­gion­al bloc to­wards a more peo­ple-cen­tred ap­proach, say­ing in­te­gra­tion must de­liv­er tan­gi­ble ben­e­fits in the dai­ly lives of Caribbean cit­i­zens.

Pierre said he ac­cepts the chair­man­ship “with hu­mil­i­ty, de­ter­mi­na­tion, and a deep sense of ser­vice,” stress­ing that Cari­com’s en­dur­ing strength lies in its found­ing prin­ci­ple that mem­ber states achieve more to­geth­er than alone. He not­ed that while the Caribbean con­tin­ues to face glob­al eco­nom­ic un­cer­tain­ty, cli­mate pres­sures and so­cial chal­lenges, co­op­er­a­tion re­mains the most ef­fec­tive path for­ward.

Across the re­gion, Pierre said cit­i­zens are in­creas­ing­ly ques­tion­ing how Cari­com di­rect­ly im­proves their lives. That ques­tion, he added, must now guide the or­gan­i­sa­tion’s agen­da.

“Cari­com must move clos­er to the peo­ple,” Pierre said, adding that the bloc should be vis­i­ble not on­ly in of­fi­cial meet­ings and com­mu­niqués but al­so in com­mu­ni­ties, schools, busi­ness­es and homes.

He em­pha­sised that strength­en­ing uni­ty among mem­ber states will be cen­tral to his tenure. Ac­cord­ing to Pierre, the re­gion’s di­ver­si­ty of lan­guages, cul­tures and tra­di­tions should be viewed as an as­set rather than a bar­ri­er, and greater co­or­di­na­tion will be need­ed to har­ness that di­ver­si­ty for col­lec­tive progress.

Pierre al­so out­lined a fo­cus on build­ing a more re­silient and sus­tain­able Caribbean Com­mu­ni­ty. Pri­or­i­ties will in­clude cli­mate ac­tion, food and nu­tri­tion se­cu­ri­ty, eco­nom­ic growth, dig­i­tal trans­for­ma­tion and ex­pand­ed trade and in­vest­ment op­por­tu­ni­ties. He fur­ther high­light­ed the need to im­prove the move­ment of peo­ple, skills, ser­vices and ideas across the re­gion.

At the heart of these ef­forts, Pierre said, must be the Caribbean peo­ple them­selves. Every cit­i­zen, re­gard­less of back­ground or cir­cum­stance, should feel rep­re­sent­ed in the re­gion­al agen­da and con­fi­dent that in­te­gra­tion is im­prov­ing their prospects.

Se­cu­ri­ty and de­vel­op­ment, he added, must ad­vance to­geth­er, with safer and more sta­ble com­mu­ni­ties form­ing the foun­da­tion for long-term pros­per­i­ty.

“The suc­cess of Cari­com must ul­ti­mate­ly be mea­sured by whether our peo­ple feel the ben­e­fits of in­te­gra­tion in their dai­ly lives,” Pierre said, warn­ing that in­te­gra­tion which is not felt by cit­i­zens “will not last.”

He called for re­newed mo­men­tum across the bloc, urg­ing mem­ber states to move col­lec­tive­ly “from re­silience to re­new­al and re­vival,” and to build a Caribbean Com­mu­ni­ty that is more unit­ed, in­clu­sive and pre­pared for fu­ture chal­lenges.

Pierre con­clud­ed by thank­ing cit­i­zens of the re­gion, pledg­ing con­tin­ued sol­i­dar­i­ty as he as­sumes lead­er­ship of the Com­mu­ni­ty.