GRAND CAYMAN, Cayman Islands — Shawn Ferguson, chief of global government relations for Special Olympics International (SOI), says programmes in the Caribbean Initiative will have even greater traction if they can leverage more support from their respective governments.

He pointed to the Special Olympics global leadership coalition for inclusion as the platform for ratifying agreements between national programmes and their governments.

“I want to help the programmes in the different countries to go to their governments and convince them that investing in our programmes is worthwhile,” Ferguson said during an interval in the Special Olympics Caribbean Initiative meeting among programme leaders at the Lions Community Centre on Friday.

“For government to provide that investment, it helps them, it helps the Special Olympics athletes, and it helps our programmes,” he said, alluding to the importance of Caribbean governments providing welfare and other support to Special Olympics programmes.

Officially announced during the World Games in Berlin, Germany, in June 2023, the coalition — funded by European-based Stavros Niarchos Foundation — is a pioneering multilateral effort aimed at increasing inclusive practices to support people with intellectual disabilities.

The global coalition is to bring together governments, industry, philanthropy and the development community.

On an international scale, last year’s projection was for the expansion of inclusive sports and education opportunities for over two million people in more than 180 countries.

The Washington, DC-based Ferguson, who is chief of staff to SOI Chairman Timothy Shriver, emphasised the need for Caribbean programmes to be front and centre of that inclusive thrust.

“We are lucky in the United States and a number of other countries to have strong relationships with our government where they put real money in the programme. There is some investment here in the Caribbean but there is a lot of room to grow when you think of the number of programmes that are solely run by volunteers,” he said.

He reasoned that understanding government relations strategies opens the door to a knock-on effect since State investment is likely to attract corporate support.

“I’ve also found in other countries that when a programme has a government that puts money into what they do the corporates [private companies] will then [be interested]… there’s a legitimacy given to the process when governments invest in the programming.

“If we get more governments in the Caribbean to invest in the programmes, you’ll see the corporates come along. They’d think ‘our government views it as a good thing, so we should too’. If that happens we could really build some impressive programmes here in the Caribbean,” said the Special Olympics global government relations boss.

— Sanjay Myers