CARICAD & ANGUILLA: LEARNING FROM EACH OTHER

The upcoming Public/Private Sector Civil Society Policy Forum by the Caribbean Centre for Development Administration (CARICAD) may provide some good result and a cross-fertilisation of ideas from which Anguilla in particular can benefit.

We are an emerging island nation and are at the crossroads where we need some help which may be useful as we decide on the direction in which we should go. Ultimately, however, we need to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling yet with courage and take our own decisions for the future of our island in all its forms. It is a burden and a responsibility we must carry ourselves.
The theme of the forum, “Leadership for Good Governance in the 21st Century,” should provoke some interest among many of our people who so often call for able leaders and improved administration on the island. It is a high-powered forum as the release printed elsewhere in this paper indicates. The previous two meetings were held in the Caribbean Commonwealth countries of Guyana and Barbados and only Julian Harrigan, the Permanent Secretary in the Department of Public Administration, had the opportunity to attend.
This year the forum in Anguilla is significant for a number of reasons. Among others, it ensures full participation by a number of influential persons drawn from public sector unions, the Labour Department, Department of Public Administration, the Anguilla National Trust and the Chamber of Commerce. It will hopefully bring into focus some of the fundamental issues of leadership and development in civil society and enable our participants to come to grips with some of the challenges facing Anguilla. The choice of location for the forum also shows Anguilla’s importance in the region and as an island worth knowing. The Anguillian participants should not stop at those listed above. The list should also extend to a number of other persons serving on special select committees and promoting various sections of the national interest. It should also include our political leaders, some of whom need that type of exposure to fill the lacking needs they have in matters of governance and other areas of leadership.
We welcome the delegates to Anguilla who will be arriving in a few days’ time and thank CARICAD for selecting our island for the forum. We hope that they will enjoy their stay and that our people will find the forum of much interest and benefit to them and will be fully represented at the sessions. We can learn something from CARICAD and they in turn can learn from us and about us and together our shared ideas can work for the common good of all.