SANTIAGO, Chile (CMC) —  The outgoing president of the Caribbean Development and Cooperation Committee (CDCC), Prime Minister Allen Chastanet has praised the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) for assisting Caribbean Community (Caricom) countries deal with the impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Chastanet, who is also St Lucia’s Prime Minister, said that the assistance has also allowed Caribbean countries to face the current situation.

Chastanet, along with St Vincent and the Grenadines Minister of Finance, Economic Planning, Camillo Gonsalves, were among delegates participating in the 28th session of the CDCC, a subsidiary body of ECLAC.

Gonsalves made mention of the extreme complexity of the events that the Caribbean has had to face in the last two years.

“We have had to invest to protect the most vulnerable and those displaced by the pandemic and to fight the inequalities that unemployment has generated and the collapse of some sectors of the economy,” he said.

ECLAC executive secretary, Alicia Bárcena, delivering a preview of the Caribbean Outlook 2020 said “COVID-19 has brought us great difficulties, but we must maintain our resolve to rebuild better and advance in a transformation towards a sustainable society”.

The Caribbean Outlook 2020, is the flagship report of ECLAC and will be officially launched during the 38th session of the Commission, next October. It offers a comprehensive assessment of the challenges facing the subregion on its path to sustainable development.

Bárcena said that the main development priorities to rebuild better in the Caribbean are strengthening food security, addressing poverty and inequality; promote economic diversification and green investments to build resilience as well as expanding access to broadband and promote wider use of digital platforms for education and communications.

In addition, she said the region needs to strengthen disaster assessment and management; improve social protection and address the needs of vulnerable populations; and strengthen the health infrastructure for the response to COVID and the fight against chronic diseases.

Vice Chancellor of the University of the West Indies, Sir Hilary Beckles made a presentation to the CDCC meeting late Thursday on the current situation of multilateralism and regionalism that was followed by a ministerial dialogue on the work programme of the Committee in the 2018 biennium- 2019, the year 2020 and the proposed program for 2021.

A statement issued following the meeting, noted that the participants approved several resolutions in which they urged member and associate countries to adopt as a first priority those strategies that reduce the vulnerability of the Caribbean countries to external shocks, particularly those that have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, through the adoption of the recommendations presented by ECLAC.

They also call on the international community to address the unique vulnerabilities of the Caribbean at the meetings of the High-Level Event on Financing for Development in the Era of COVID, as well as in other forums, through debt reduction and the establishment of a fund to ensure low-cost, long-term financing that allows the urgent construction of resilience.

The meeting also stressed the importance of ECLAC in its provision of substantive support to the agenda of small island developing states (SIDS) and the sustainable development process in the Caribbean, within the framework of the 2030 Agenda and other development platforms.