PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad — Leaders of employers’ organisations from 19 International Labour Organisation (ILO) Caribbean Member States and non-metropolitan territories will attend the 4th Caribbean Academy for Management of Employers’ Organisations (CAMEO), which will convene at the Halcyon Cove Hotel in Antigua and Barbuda from 26-28 August, 2013.

The Meeting will focus on strategic issues of management and leadership under the theme: “Analysing and Shaping the Business Environment to Influence Policy Development”.

The CAMEO is being organised by the ILO’s Decent Work Team and Office for the Caribbean based in Port of Spain (DWT/O-POS) in collaboration with the Antigua and Barbuda Employers’ Federation (ABEF).

Sharon Peters, the permanent Secretary in the twin island’s Ministry of National Security and Labour will address the opening ceremony, along with ABEF President Acres Stowe; Dr Giovanni di Cola, director of the DWT/O-POS; and Brent Wilton, secretary general of the International Organisation of Employers. Meanwhile, Deborah France-Massin, the director of ILO’s Bureau for Employers’ Activities (ACT/EMP), will also attend the meeting.

The meeting will provide a forum for senior officials of employers’ organisations to:

* identify priorities of national and regional Caribbean employers’ organisations;

* build on their management knowledge and assess their effectiveness in influencing others in support of business positions;

* gain a better understanding of the wider international and regional environment (economic, social and political) in which they operate; and

* discuss lessons learned from national initiatives that can be applied at a regional level.

Presentations at the three-day meeting will focus on identifying strategies for supporting and representing business; influencing policy development at national and regional levels; operating within the Caribbean Single Market and Economy framework; and developing an enabling environment for sustainable enterprises.

“Given the continuing focus on the Caribbean Single Market with the pivotal requirements of free movement of capital, goods, services and labour, it is imperative that representative employers’ organisations strengthen the channels of communication amongst them,” says Dr Giovanni di Cola, Director of the DWT/O-POS, adding that “a collaborative approach to developing policy positions will best support viable and sustainable enterprises throughout the region”.

The CAMEO was launched in 2007 and is a collaborative programme between the ILO and business institutions of higher learning created to support executives of employers’ organisations in the English- and Dutch-speaking Caribbean.

The ILO is a specialised agency within the United Nations system committed to advancing opportunities for women and men to obtain decent and productive work in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity.