National Consultations to inform the new Results-Focused 2020 CARICOM Strategic Plan

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana)     The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat is supporting CARICOM Member States and Associate Members to convene broad-based consultations over the period 11 February to 6 April 2019 to inform the development of the Results-Focused 2020 Caribbean Community Strategic Plan.

The New Strategic Plan will, among other things, serve to define the direction of the Caribbean Community over the Plan’s horizon; keep implementing partners focused, and lay-out the strategies to secure the future in a dynamic and often challenging global environment.

A wide range of stakeholders from the public, private, and the not-for-profit sectors including the Youth, labour organisations, the Media, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), civil society organisations (CSO) and faith-based organisations (FBO) will be consulted on issues related to the regional integration and development agenda. The ‘I AM CARICOM’ Communications Campaign is a component of the process and aims, among other outcomes, to fully engage them in developing and implementing strategic interventions that directly affect their lives.

 The national consultations are an important part of the process for the development of the Plan, as they are designed to ensure the process is inclusive and consultative.

 Process for developing the plan

At the national level, a National Consultative Working Group (NCWG), chaired by the respective Member State’s Ambassador to CARICOM, has been established in each Member State to lead activities. The NCWG serves as the point of contact for the coordination of input at all stages of the development of the 2020 Results-Focused Strategic Plan.

The CARICOM Secretariat is taking a coordinating role in the process to develop the plan.  This process was endorsed by the CARICOM Committee of Ambassadors in June 2018 and subsequently approved by the Community Council of Ministers Meeting in the said month.

This plan succeeds the first Community Strategic Plan 2015-2019, which ended in December 2019.

Benefiting from insights and lessons learned during the implementation period of the first strategic plan, the new plan will be accompanied by a number of other results-focused outputs to support its efficient and effective implementation.  These include a costed Results-oriented Community Implementation Plan, Logic Models and Performance Measurement Framework, Community Operational Plan, Risk Management Plan, Resource Mobilisation Plan and Communications Strategy which includes the ‘I AM CARICOM’ Communications Campaign.

I AM CARICOM’ Communications Campaign

A key feature of the process to develop the plan is the ‘I AM CARICOM’ Campaign (#Iamcaricom), which is currently being rolled out across the Community. This campaign aims to assist the citizens of the Community to understand CARICOM, its people, geography, institutions, governance structure, policies and plan.

The Caribbean Community 2020 Results-Focused Strategic Plan, and its accompanying results-focused documents, will be submitted for approval of the Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government in July 2020, in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.