So serious are the issues facing the region that its leaders have decided to restructure the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Development Fund (CDF) to enable it to raise additional monies from individuals, companies, institutions, regional countries and extra regional countries.
The CARICOM Development Fund (CDF) is an institution of the Caribbean Community which mandate is to provide financial or technical assistance to disadvantaged countries, regions and sectors in the Community. In this capacity, the CDF is central to addressing the disparities among the Member States of CARICOM, which may result from the implementation of the CSME.
CARICOM Chair, Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley, made this announcement on Wednesday, during a press conference on the final day of the 31st Inter-sessional Meeting of the Conference of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), held at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre.
Ms. Mottley said the issue of the Fund and its management was one that had “bedevilled the Community for some time”, noting that it was created as a way to assist disadvantaged countries, sectors, and regions.
She said: “Member states have committed to capitalizing this Fund, but this will never be enough to do what needs to be done, particularly with all of the challenges that the region faces at this point in time. Yesterday, I outlined a number of them and we keep seeing new challenges as we did with the COVID-19, and to that extent, therefore, we feel strongly that we need to revisit the structure of the CARICOM Development Fund.” (Extracted and Modified from the Barbados Government Information Service)
