The St. Kitts summit
FACING UP to challenging regional health problems and the need to make the CARICOM Charter of Civil Society a legally-binding accord are among matters expected to be addressed at the forthcoming 32nd Heads of Government Conference in St. Kitts and Nevis. Ahead of the four-day summit, scheduled to begin Friday, the CARICOM Secretariat conducted a ‘media clinic’ in  Basseterre to facilitate, as it said, “informed coverage” of this regular annual event in the life of the 38-year-old regional economic integration movement.
Representatives of the region’s print and electronic media were advised about the pre-summit clinic having a special focus on regional health developments to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the ‘Nassau Declaration’ of 2001 by CARICOM governments, with its memorable theme: ‘The Health of the Region is the Wealth of the Region’.
Consistent with this recognition, and a commitment to attain major health objectives, the Heads of Government had established in July 2005 a blue-ribbon ‘Caribbean Commission on Health and Development’ under the chairmanship of former Director of the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO), Sir George Alleyne, current Chancellor of the University of the West Indies, and included a number of eminent West Indians across the region.
In addition to the heavy concentration on battling the HIV/AIDS epidemic that has had serious affects on the region’s human capital, the Commission was to prioritise precisely those aspects of health to be effectively addressed to move “beyond mere rhetoric.”
Coincidentally, the Head of Government who was assigned lead responsibility for health within CARICOM’s quasi-cabinet system, Dr. Denzil Douglas, Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis, will be host for the coming summit, and assume the chairmanship for the next six months.
In addition to the report expected from Prime Minister Douglas, it would be quite appropriate to also have an assessment of progress and shortcomings in the region’s implementation of key recommendations from the Commission on Health.
It is known that chronic non-communicable diseases (NDCs) have had a serious toll on citizens across the region, a toll that included deaths from heart-disease, stroke and obesity (both in children and adults). The commission was particularly alarmed over the problem of overweight and obesity in children, and urged that it be treated with the utmost priority and involving all stakeholders.

An old problem
For the coming summit, new regional challenges to be addressed would include what to do about an old problem, namely, a poor record in implementation of decisions, due to a perceived irrelevant governance system at the Georgetown-based CARICOM Secretariat.
The Heads are expected to have for guidance at least the summary of an organizational review on how to secure comprehensive restructuring of the Secretariat. The summary is based on a still incomplete study being done by Landell Mills, a UK Consulting firm comprising non-nationals of CARICOM, except for one. The precise text of the terms of reference for this latest of studies on the functioning of the secretariat could not be obtained.
However, governments and regional institutions would have on their shelves of CARICOM documents a good set of reports and working papers on what should be done to ensure that there is an enlightened governance system to respond to the problems and challenges in implementing already approved policies and programmes. 
These would include the final report of what is known as ‘The Patrick Gomes/Leonard Archer Review Committee’; the more recent work done by Dr. Vaughn Lewis, as well as that of Dr. Norman Girvan in relation to the sequential implementation to obtain the objectives of a single economy with ‘a single development vision’.
In their consideration of matters that have long been ignored — even as they kept the rhetoric flowing — the Heads of Government should at least remind themselves of the implementation deficit that affects, for example, governance issues such as the CARICOM Charter of Civil  Society.
A checklist on lack of effective responses by Heads who have been allocated “lead portfolio responsibilities” in the Community’s quasi-cabinet system would reveal a distressing litany of failures that include making the Charter of a legally binding instrument.
At the 2003 CARICOM Summit when then outgoing Prime Minister of Jamaica, P.J. Patterson shared his hopes for ‘CARICOM Beyond Thirty’ in the ‘charting of new directions’, he had specifically urged the taking of steps to “make the Charter a living document in the lives of the people” by converting it into a “binding treaty arrangement,” and by having an annual report prepared on its observance by member states.   
It was the general feeling at the time, as expressed by Patterson, that the proposed annual report could be used as the basis for “peer review,” and that citizens should also have recourse to the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) under its original jurisdiction to redress breaches of the Charter.
Alas! With the short-lived CARICOM Assembly of Parliamentarians now reduced to a mere footnote in the history of the regional economic integration movement, and core recommendations of the seminal Report of The West Indian Commission gathering dust on shelves of decision-makers of the Community, there seems little cause for optimism to advance the rights of citizens of our Community, as eloquently outlined in the Charter of Civil Society.
As of last week, now the Community Secretariat and host Prime Minister Douglas were expecting a ‘full house’ of representative delegations from all 15 member countries of the Community — among them the new Presidents of Haiti (Michelle Martelly) and Suriname (Desi Bouterse).