UNITED NATIONS (CMC) - Every September, Caribbean Community (Caricom) leaders travel to New York to attend the annual session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) hoping to influence discussions that could affect their socio-economic development.

The leaders have traditionally used the forum as a platform on which to outline their concerns about trade, climate change and other global issues, and this past week, when the 63rd session convened, was no exception.

Prime Minister Bruce Golding adressing the United Nations General Assembly on Friday. (Photo: AP)

For instance, they urged a revision of the international financial architecture to advance the development of poorer countries.

Among those making the case was Jamaica's Prime Minister Bruce Golding, who argued that the gap had widened between the rich and poor, within and among countries. Golding also warned of turbulent times ahead for vulnerable societies with the global economy seemingly headed for a severe downturn.

His St Vincent and the Grenadines colleague, Dr Ralph Gonsalves, also believes there is need for change. In fact, he argued for "genuine negotiations" between developed and developing countries aimed at alleviating the suffering of the poor and hungry of the world.

In his address to the world body, Dominica's Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit appealed for meaningful change at the international level. He also called on developed countries to stop paying "lip service" to the concerns of poorer nations and to engage in genuine trade and financial discussions that will help the poor overcome the challenges of the times.

The Caricom leaders say the evidence to date suggests that the international community has inadvertently institutionalised and entrenched poverty within a system of global winners and losers, labelling the Doha development round as a "suicide pact" within the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

They have noted limited progress in meeting the targets set by the 2002 landmark anti-poverty agreement known as the Monterrey Consensus on Financing for Development, which produced "grand, unfilled commitments" to poorer nations.

The leaders also noted that to date only five countries have met their commitment to contribute less than one per cent of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to the Official Development Assistance (ODA).

St Lucia's Prime Minister Stephenson King said that while his island appreciates the efforts of countries which have met the established ODA, it was urging other countries to act quickly "so that the target may not have to be shifted upwards due to increased poverty worldwide".

Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham of the Bahamas, like his Caricom colleagues, is calling for "effective, permanent representation of developing countries" - particularly small countries - in international economic, trade and financial organisations such as the Bretton Woods institutions and the WTO.

His Barbados counterpart, David Thompson, said the current global crisis could not be solved by those responsible for it because they also "created, controlled and manipulated the global financial system for their own advantage".

The leaders of Antigua and Barbuda and St Kitts-Nevis said it was also important for the international community to re-think their trade and economic policies which they said were having disastrous effects on developing countries like those in the Caribbean.

Prime Minister Baldwin Spencer of Antigua and Barbuda and his St Kitts-Nevis counterpart, Dr Denzil Douglas, told the General Assembly there was an urgent need for addressing the situation, while recently elected Prime Minister of Grenada, Tillman Thomas, listed the steps being taking to build a new and prosperous economy, including revitalising the cocoa and nutmeg industries; boosting labour productivity; fostering a knowledge-based export services sector; and modernising the tax system.

While Guyana maintained the region's position on trade, the economic crisis and assistance to developing states, it was also critical of the steps being taken by the developed countries in dealing with climate change.

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