Government of the British Virgin Islands
TORTOLA, BVI – The United Nations (UN) Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and associate members have committed to closer collaboration on the regional sustainable development agenda.
At a virtual inaugural meeting of the reconstituted ECLAC associate members working group, the governments of eight associate members met with the representatives of the ECLAC subregional headquarters for the Caribbean in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.
Among other things, presentations were made by Dr Dale Alexander, chief of the Caribbean Knowledge Centre at ECLAC, on the position of the associate members in the 2030 Agenda framework, as well as the technical assistance they are provided by ECLAC.
It was acknowledged that the Caribbean’s progress in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 was running behind and that ECLAC and its associate members should deepen engagement on sustainable development and identify where ECLAC can provide technical assistance to assist associate members with their needs.
Diane Quarless outlined the process by which the associate members could request development assistance from ECLAC and clarified the regional commission’s limitations and constraints.
New chief of the ECLAC Subregional Headquarters for the Caribbean Dr Miosotis Penas Revas delivered a presentation on the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4) and emphasised the need to strengthen statistical capacity across the Caribbean to capture the data needed to support funding of future projects and programmes, and the accurate measurement of the progress of the SDGs in the subregion.
The participants agreed to collaborate on preparation and participation for upcoming international meetings and forums, including the 13th Conference of the Parties (COP 30) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Belem, Brazil and the Second World Summit for Social Development in Doha, Qatar.
The ECLAC associate members working group meeting was chaired by British Virgin Islands special envoy Benito Wheatley.
The associate members of ECLAC include Anguilla, Aruba, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Curacao, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Montserrat, Puerto Rico, Sint Maarten, St. Martin, Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) and United States Virgin Islands (USVI).
