When a delegation of heads of United Nations agencies attended a three-day retreat in St Lucia late October, the purpose was to discuss the development situation on the island as well as areas of support that the local government would like to see from the UN system going into the coming year.

On the occasion the United Nations Sub-regional Team (UNST) for Barbados and the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) observed UN Day and during the proceedings agreed on development support to be provided to Barbados and the OECS in the coming year to keep the countries “On Track to the Meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).”

The UNST for Barbados and the OECS was led by UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative, Michelle Gyles-McDonnough and met with St Lucia’s Prime Minister Stephenson King and Members of Cabinet on Thursday, 22 October 2009.

The meeting was held behind closed doors but a press conference was convened midway through Thursday’s session to brief the media on the proceedings. Michelle Gyles-McDonnough and prime minister Stephenson King were selected speakers for the conference and McDonnough started off by thanking the ministers and Cabinet for meeting with the UN system.

The UNDP Resident Representative and Coordinator said the UN system went on annual strategic planning retreats covering ten countries in the region. She noted that there were 14 operating agencies of the UN system that carried out development activities in Barbados and the OECS.

“Development is a multi developmental issue and today we were provided with the very comprehensive overview of the development situation as it stands currently in St Lucia by the honourable prime minister as well as clear identification of some areas of support necessary,” said McDonnough adding that prime minister King had highlighted the challenging situation of poverty on the island and the urgent need to focus on poverty reduction, and the reduction of inequality in St Lucia and across the region.

Within that McDonnough said there were a number of areas the UN could support in the social sector, looking at social safety nets, social policy transformation, addressing issues of crime and security, the environment and very pressing climate change and energy issues.

Billions of dollars were spent annually on fossil fuels, on the region’s energy bill and McDonnough said the meeting had discussed the urgent need for the Caribbean to begin to look at renewable and alternative sources of energy. Prime minister Stephenson King is the lead minister for Caricom on the issues of climate change and for that reason, McDonnough highlighted the upcoming negotiations in Copenhagen in December, where she said; “St Lucia and the rest of the region, and people of this region will be relying heavily on the leadership of Prime Minister King as we go into these negotiations.”

With the majority of countries in the world pushing for a 2.2- degree temperature rise at the Copenhagen negotiations McDonnough said countries in the Caribbean could no longer see climate change as a matter of scientists and theorists, but consider it’s impacts on agriculture and the lives of people who live in most of the coastal regions of this world.

“You have to consider what happens when you have 1.5- degree temperature rise,” she said. “What that does to sea level, and to the possibility of disaster and destruction to this region. We believe, along with the prime ministers of this region that we will not survive. 2.2 degrees is too high for this region.”

The UN Resident Coordinator expressed support to the prime minister and to Caricom in costing the adaptation measures that countries in the Caribbean would have to take in order to cope with the changes over time of the climate.

When it was his turn, Prime Minister Stephenson King said the meeting brought cabinet and the sub-regional team together to discuss a number of timely interventions. The prime minister felt something could be done only if the organizations worked together as partners in development.

Crime, violence, security and poverty reduction; the latter being an area King believed society could not lose sight of, were top priority at the three day meeting. King said already St Lucian society was very broad based in terms of people who lived below the poverty line, narrower based in terms of those who were middle income, and thin tipped with those who could be considered “up in the higher bracket.” The prime minister said the impact of the global financial situation could possibly throw more individuals below the poverty line.

“An individual who is earning a reasonable salary that can sustain him on a day to day basis, through losing his job can immediately find himself on the breadline,” King elaborated. “With the issue of climate change, the impact could find societies disappearing, and our economy being affected as a result.”

Projects recommended for implementation at the meeting included a “Sociological Data Capture Project that King said would to allow government agencies to collect and use data as measure of research to influence policy, After School Programs; to capture the youth as there was a growing trend of students left unattended after school. A men’s Support Network project; King brought forward findings from a poverty assessment where a substantial number of young men said they were unable to find permanent employment that paid wages that would allow them to provide adequately for their children. The project would be geared to provide support to disadvantaged young men in an effort to steer them away from negative or illegal activity. In that regard a vulnerability reduction unit, intended to provide financial or other types of protection was brought into the picture.

King made mention of a Social Protection Agency; an extension of St Lucia Social Development Fund and a Micro Finance Program where young school leavers would be encouraged in self employment undertakings. The program would provide support mechanisms, career guidance, counselling and micro financing for young people looking to get their projects off the ground.

Other recommendations included a Central Beneficiary Identification Registry and a Juvenile Rehabilitation Complex. King said there was a need for government to put emphasis on sustainable development in order to “sustain ourselves in the current environment.”

“I believe today’s gathering came home with a very clear statement; the need for social engineering, whether we speak of crime, drugs, prostitution, health, education, sustainable development, economic empowerment and resilience. If we as a government, a people of a region and world, can do that, we’re going the right way.”