Darby Etienne MA Diplomacy
This year there will be lots of diplomatic challenges facing Caribbean countries, but are they equipped to do so? First, there are the issues concerning the regional organisations of CARICOM and the OECS.
As my mentor Sir Ronald Sanders rightly pointed out in his article last week, Caribbean Governments are not utilising the benefits of regional arrangements with leaders preferring to pursue individual deals.
These leaders conveniently seem to forget the true meaning of regionalism which ought to be about on creating administrative efficiencies and co-operative governance arrangements.
What is the reason for regionalisation working well within the OECS but not at CARICOM? Sir Arthur Lewis the Caribbean’s 1979 Nobel Laureate, winner of the Memorial Prize in Economics described the various conditions that determine the regional rate of economic growth.
Sir Arthur Lewis. Photo courtesy blackpast.org
Having two leading regional institutions, this has not prevented our Caribbean Development Bank founded by Sir Arthur being downgraded by Standard & Poor’s on account of Caribbean Government’s inability to repay loans on time.
Does anyone remember the phrase ‘United we stand divided we fall’?
The Report produced by Landell Mills on restructuring the CARICOM secretariat brought to light further issues which the Caribbean leadership must take on board.
One challenge identified by the British company is the poorly designed structure in place to encourage representational leadership in contrast to a Chief Executive led institution.
This is so culturally embedded in our institutions that it prevents continuity even within Caribbean political systems. Also noted was the weakness in management arrangements; the poor mechanisms for prioritising activities, and gaps in policymaking.
Of course they identify typical Caribbean procrastination everywhere. Nicely put the English report writers are saying ‘all you do is talk’.
What role can diplomats play in helping Caribbean institutions to improve?
Although diplomats were not mentioned in the Landell Mills report, diplomats nonetheless are required to bridge the gap in shrewd communication, transportation and trade negotiating.
It is simply common sense that the more countries you have within a regional setup the more diplomatic facilitators are required. This axiom should have already led to the creation of a special diplomatic system known as Associate Diplomacy to administer the relations among states, regional groups, associations, civil societies and transnational regional organisations.
This could synergise the functioning of both the OECS and CARICOM and transform them from being an environment for creating camaraderie jobs and a ceremonial diplomacy theatre.
Associative Diplomacy in the Caribbean could improve efficiency by implementing community development plans that complement the local development plans of CARICOM and OECS members.
Photo courtesy news.bbc.co.uk. Dominican PM Roosevelt Skerrit (left) with Chinese PM Wen Jiabao, Beijing
It would bring together the various fields of sustained socio-economic development including agriculture, the tourist industry, energy sector, social structures, cultural industries and health.
Can we implement Caribbean codes of conduct to protect our economies?
Remember Sir Lewis’ theory that an unlimited supply of labour would make wages of workers lower and make profits higher. We do not have the element of cheap labour in the Caribbean that is available in India and China, but what we do have is a rich Diaspora with 1st, 2nd and 3rd generation Caribbean people skilled in first world technical knowledge.
This expertise is badly required within the Caribbean. So the next time China comes with their reservoir of cheap labour to do a project in the Caribbean, present them with codes of conduct that will oblige them to use Caribbean workers in the same way that they used their codes of conduct back in the 1970s blocking transnational companies from using old technology in China.
