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The Caribbean Community and the Commonwealth: Collective

Responsibility in the 21st Century

15-18 February 2011, Kingston, Jamaica

Address by Commonwealth Deputy Secretary-General Ransford Smith

It is a great pleasure to be here and to address the Opening Ceremony of this

important and timely conference on the Caribbean Community and the
Commonwealth.

It is especially appropriate that this should be at the University of the West

Indies – a quintessential Caribbean institution which, having had its genesis in
relations of empire, has embraced modernity, changing and adapting with the
times so as to better serve the region.

The Caribbean Community, if not the oldest, may be most advanced regional
integration movement in the developing world. While this decades old
Community may have at times fallen short of its own goals this should not
obscure the progress made over the years.

It is instructive to recall, as Pascal Lamy did in a recent article on regional

integration in Africa, that the Southern African Customs Union was established
in the first decade of the last century, and the East African Community nine years
later – that is in 1919. History may therefore be intimating that the regional
journey can be a long and challenging one. Fortunately, there is reason to believe
that through co-operation, engagement and enterprise, this journey will yield
social and economic gains far beyond the individual national investment of
resources and political will. It is for this reason that the Commonwealth
Secretariat, which I represent here today, is a strong supporter of regional
integration movements across the Commonwealth, and why we readily agreed,
when approached, to support this important conference.

This address is, like the conference, interestingly entitled the Caribbean
Community and the Commonwealth: Collective Responsibility in the 21st Century.
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I have Professor Sir Kenneth Hall to thank for choosing what is a challenging
subject. But it certainly has the virtue of concentrating the mind on what the
modern Commonwealth is, what the Caribbean Community is and aspires to be,
and how the two are related. Let me speak briefly to the modern Commonwealth.

The modern Commonwealth dates back to 1949. This was the year of the
London Declaration – under the terms of which it was agreed that the then newly
independent and republican state – India – would remain in the Commonwealth.
This laid the ground for new members adhering to differing constitutional
arrangements to join the association as they became independent.

The admission of new members was to be a frequent occurrence as the

decolonization process gathered momentum in Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and the
Pacific. With Rwanda’s admission in 2009, membership of the Commonwealth is
now fifty-four countries, constituting one third of humanity, almost 2 billion
people, and a quarter of all nations. Twelve of the fifteen independent members
of the Caribbean Community are members of the Commonwealth, the exception
being Suriname and Haiti.

The Commonwealth Caribbean, as is its way in the international arena,

punches above its weight in the Commonwealth.

The region provided arguably the best known and certainly the longest serving
Secretary-General, Sir Shridath Ramphal. This region also famously provided
within the Commonwealth the persistent agitation, the resolve and the leadership
that contributed to the dismantling of apartheid and to the termination of
colonialism in Southern Africa. This history points to a vital convergence
between the modern Commonwealth and the Commonwealth Caribbean. It is a
convergence of values. The Commonwealth is committed to fundamental values
that include observance of the rule of law, democratic processes, independence of
the judiciary, protection and promotion of fundamental human rights, and the
provision of equality of opportunity.

These and other shared values were reiterated in the “Affirmation of

Commonwealth Values and Principles” adopted at the Heads of Government
Meeting, in Port of Spain, in November 2009. It is certainly not my intention to
suggest or imply that principle and reality are always one and the same. Within
the Commonwealth, as without, the journey from principle to platitude can be
short and swift. The Commonwealth’s Harare Declaration of 1991 is, for
example, ironically a seminal document on adherence to the principles of good
governance. But derogations along the way notwithstanding, a shared history,
common aspirations, and similar institutions and practices, anchor and inform an
important body of democratic values that are a beacon for the peoples of the
Commonwealth, and for people everywhere. This is the riposte to the well
intentioned query – what is the relevance of the Commonwealth today? To rely
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on Joseph Nye’s oft quoted phrase, it is the fact of its “soft power”. This is an
important contribution to national, regional and global good that can be easily
underestimated. In this regard, I recall a speech by the Secretary-General of the
Organisation of American States, H.E. Jose Miguel Insulza, to the Commonwealth
Business Forum in Port of Spain two years ago. His subject was the
Commonwealth and the Americas, and Secretary-General Insulza had this to say:
“Major changes in the OAS began in the 1960s when first Trinidad and Tobago
in 1967,

followed by the other eleven Commonwealth Caribbean independent states and

Canada joined the organisation. Their advent altered the culture of the OAS in a
decisive and positive way. These new members brought the Commonwealth’s
entrenched tradition of parliamentary democracy, strong rule of law, respect for
civil and human rights, and confidence in their institutions, which have bolstered
the OAS and have reinforced its pillars of democracy, human rights, integral
development, and multidimensional security. We are now experiencing a process
of democratic consolidation in the Americas….”

It would be naive to suggest that the demonstration effect is all that is needed.
Suffice it to say though that this is a very important ingredient as borne out by the
cascading clamour for democratic change that we have seen across contiguous
regions of the globe in recent times.

Let me hasten to emphasise that pragmatism and preparedness to act also inform
the Commonwealth outlook. This is reflected in the association’s institutional
framework. An important mechanism, the Commonwealth Ministerial Action
Group (CMAG) is probably the only instrument of its kind outside of the United
Nations Security Council.

This is a group of nine Foreign Ministers with the power to suspend and even to
recommend the expulsion of a member or members for serious or persistent
violation of Commonwealth values. This has been done on a number of occasions
in the past, most recently in the case of Fiji, suspended in 2006 following the
military coup in that country.

A current priority goal of the Commonwealth is strengthening CMAG to make it

more effective, and recommendations to this end are expected to be made to the
next Heads of Government Meeting in Perth, Australia, later this year. Jamaica
from this region, and Trinidad and Tobago, as Chair-in-office, are current
members of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG).

Let me note though that in upholding its values, the way of the Commonwealth
lies first and foremost in support and encouragement, such as through the use of
good offices, the deputising of eminent persons, and the provision of assistance to
bring about adherence to good governance and democratic practices. While the
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Commonwealth Secretary-General has deployed his good offices in this region in

the past, it may be of interest to note that the Caribbean is the only developing
region in the Commonwealth where stronger measures have not been taken in
defence of Commonwealth fundamental values.

This points to the generally recognised strength of Commonwealth values in the

Caribbean. This is a strength of which, shortcomings notwithstanding, the region
can be proud. The Commonwealth Secretariat has been active in recent years in
providing assistance to the Caribbean in areas such as gender mainstreaming,
human rights training for the police; encouraging adherence to human rights
instruments and meeting reporting obligations; strengthening the criminal justice
system through training and promoting inter-regional cooperation and exchanges;
providing legislative drafting assistance and training; and support to democratic
processes through a Commonwealth flagship activity -– election observation in
this and other regions. In this latter regard, with the active participation of this
region, a pan-Commonwealth Network of National Election Management Bodies
has been established recently to promote peer learning, peer support and exchange.

Development is a core value of the Commonwealth. In Port of Spain, Heads of

Government affirmed that economic and social progress enhances the
sustainability of democracy. While the Caribbean has made significant progress
over the years, especially in human development, there is growing concern that
the region is performing below its social and economic potential. It may not be an
exaggeration to say that the Commonwealth Caribbean is in danger of becoming in
terms of comparative growth a “problem child” of the global community. Major
recent studies have pointed in this direction. The World Bank’s mid-decade study
“A Time to Choose: Caribbean Development in the 21st Century” while finding
significant improvements in human development found, as well, lagging trade
performance, and a secular decline in growth rates as compared to other
developing regions. The recent end of decade joint report by the World Bank and
the OAS found weak competitiveness and a long run growth performance that
does not compare favourably with the best performing countries in Africa. More
recently, in the 2009-2010 global competitiveness report only Barbados out-
performed the Latin American average in terms of competitiveness and other
Caribbean countries evaluated placed in the bottom half of the global
competitiveness index.

One might ask - is the region strong in values and weak on growth? Earlier I
spoke to a convergence of Commonwealth and Caribbean views on the question of
values. Integral to these are support for democratic institutions, good governance,
and development. Societies must not only provide the wherewithal to meet basic
human needs but must also provide security, access to justice, and an enabling
environment conducive to progressive communities and productive lives.
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This leads me to two inter-related Commonwealth concerns – firstly, the

situation, one might say, the plight, of small states in the global economy and,
secondly, the importance of integration movements.

The Commonwealth is home to 32 small states, and twenty-five of these are small
island states.

As a consequence, the Commonwealth has always placed great importance on

advocacy for small states. It is cause for concern that research findings repeatedly
show small states - and least developed countries - as lagging behind in growth
performance. The Caribbean collectively accounts for almost a third of this “at
risk” grouping. Two important Commonwealth studies in the last decade, both in
collaboration with the World Bank, have identified the challenges and
opportunities small states face.

The challenges include being prone to natural disasters, the erosion of

preferences, limited institutional capacity, and migration of skills – to which we
must now add the impact of climate change, heavy burden of debt, and secular low
growth in major export markets. There are few commentators who do not
propose regional cooperation as a path to take in response to these challenges.

Against this background, the Commonwealth Secretariat is fully committed to

working with regional organisations and regional institutions to achieve their
goals. By way of illustration: we have recently launched the Commonwealth
Pacific Governance Facility; we continue to deliver trade capacity support to
regional organisations in the Caribbean, the Pacific and Africa; we provide debt
management support to regional and sub-regional organisations across the
Commonwealth; we provide regionally based training in legal drafting and in
human rights as indicated earlier. We deploy experts on climate change to
regional institutions and assist small states, in particular, in maritime delimitation.
Our work on strengthening the public service also has a strong regional
dimension. We convene regular regional meetings of Commonwealth Heads of
Public Service and Cabinet Secretaries, and more recently, regional caucuses of
Ministers of the Public Service. We take this approach because we fully recognise
that increasingly the boundaries between national and regional challenges are non-
existent or blurred, and regional approaches and responses are imperative.

What are the overarching challenges, and the opportunities, of regional integration
as we see it? The opportunities are known – economies of scale; shared costs by
operating common services; pooling of negotiating power in interface with the
wider global community – an area of some success, especially in trade; and,
broadly, deriving synergies from combining human, financial, institutional and
political resources.
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I will now cite three important overarching challenges. The first of these is the
importance of citizen engagement – ensuring that regional movements become
‘flatter’. Regional arrangements, by their very logic, move decision-making and
implementation up the ladder, and a rung further away from the citizen. This can
impair accountability, may run counter to subsidiarity, and risks distancing
decision-making and implementation from those they are intended to ultimately
serve. This can be addressed by actively promoting transparency, engagement and
accountability at both national and regional levels and by providing space for
interface by civil society, the private sector, and the ordinary citizen, with regional
institutions and processes. It can also be addressed by extending certain rights
that citizens enjoy at the national level to the regional level – such as access to
information. Instruments and mechanisms like the Assembly of Community
Parliamentarians, the Charter of Civil Society, the media, and institutions of
learning, such as this one, have a vital role to play in this regard.

Another key issue that faces regional organisations is the sovereignty question.
To be effective, regional organisations need consistent mandates, strong policies
and predictable financial support from their member states. They also require a
clear determination of the extent to which sovereignty will be devolved to the
collective by constituent members. These are issues that are cogently and well
explored in the book entitled Caricom: Policy Options for International
Engagement launched in London last week by the UWI-Caricom Project, and
with which the Commonwealth is pleased to be associated.

A third overarching and critical issue is the balance to be struck between inward
and outward focus. For the purpose of these comments, this is primarily related to
the trade and economic aspect of the integration movement. In the case of
Caricom, as with other regional movements, there is no easy answer. But it is
suggested that the leap that may be required is to view the regional integration
movement both as a platform from which to engage with the global community,
and as a vehicle for inserting national and regional enterprises into hemispheric
and global production and output. In much the same way that the fact of small size
should compel foreign policy coordination, the fact of small size and markets may
also compel this strategic path to economic growth and development. In this
context extra-regional engagement may be seen not as a threat to, but as an
integral part of, creating a stronger and more effective regional movement.

Some years ago the World Bank noted that there is a strong co-relation between
high levels of extra-regional trade and high levels of intra-regional trade. The
point was that the best performing integration schemes were those engaged in
removing barriers to third countries at the same time as they proceeded with
removing barriers amongst themselves. In Europe currently, intra-regional trade
is 60%, in NAFTA 40%, in ASEAN more than 30%, in Africa and the
Caribbean, between 10 and 20%, with the Caribbean at the low end of this range.
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In this vein, I might recall that the United Nations Conference on Trade and
Development in its Trade and Development Report drew attention some years ago
to the strong trade expansion in Asia and its link to the rise of regional production
networks. A strategic objective of engagement for the Community might possibly
be its insertion into the merchandise value chain to take advantage of what the
United Nations Industrial Development Organisation was among the first to
describe as “trade in tasks”, a segment of global trade that is growing very rapidly,
both as a component of North/South and South/South trade.

In stating this, I am aware that the Caribbean economies are mostly services-
based. Fortunately there is a synergy that can be taken advantage of, for the
integration of countries into the global services economy as well as their insertion
into the merchandise value chain can be driven by the same policy set. This
includes appropriate regulatory frameworks, a focus on education and skills
development, efficient border processes, and the provision of reliable
infrastructure, especially communication facilities to take advantage of
e-commerce and the revolution in information and communications technology.

Let me elaborate briefly on this last point. A number of studies, the previously
referred to World Bank/OAS study, earlier IADB/INTAL studies, as well as the
Single Development Vision have pointed to the importance of infrastructural
regional public goods to the development and transformation of the Community.
The African Development Bank has emphasized that Africa needs to integrate to
build common infrastructure. It can be argued that the Caribbean needs to build
common infrastructure to integrate. In addition to infrastructural regional goods,
the regional services that are essential to economic intercourse, such as regulatory
and quality control bodies, are another area of priority. A third building block is
the collective management of the regional commons, which Brewster has
identified as the sea, airspace, weather, disease, pest infestation, and the like. And
a fourth is security cooperation. It is to the region’s credit that progress is indeed
being made in some of these areas. Taken collectively, they are key elements for a
Caribbean Community that can walk confidently on two legs – stronger within
and more engaged without.

Finally, let me say that the challenges facing small states such as those in the
Caribbean are well documented. The region’s achievements in political,
economic, social and cultural terms have been noteworthy but new hurdles must
now be cleared. This requires heightened cooperation. Among the most
challenging for the region are the debt burden that currently constricts fiscal space
and limits social expenditure, the high level of migration that depletes skills, and
the growing regional security problem, fuelled by the drug trade and the
Caribbean’s strategic location as a transhipment point. It is an ironic aside to
observe that those engaged in illicit activities may be proving more adept at taking
advantage of the region’s strategic location than legitimate business.
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Regrettably as well, on the question of depletion of skills, the Caribbean is a global

leader in the migration of its tertiary graduates. Remittances notwithstanding, this
has profound implications for economies that individually and collectively will
only be able to compete in the new global environment through knowledge-based
and value added endeavours.

Fortunately, regional integration offers a viable means of harnessing anew the

productive and creative energies of the Caribbean people in response to the
tectonic shifts that are taking place in the global economy. Many of the challenges
facing the region can and must of necessity be addressed in concert with others,
within and outside the region. The Commonwealth with its diverse composition
and a recognised tradition of advocacy on behalf of small states is well suited for
this role. The peoples of the Caribbean are embarked on a journey to build
societies that, though small, are democratic, open, accountable and beneficially
integrated into the global economy.

The region’s destiny may well be the task of demonstrating to the global
community that this journey is not at all ill-conceived.