An OECS Minister for Social Transformation has initiated steps towards prioritizing the Social Policy Agenda at the highest decision making body of the nine member group of Eastern Caribbean countries, the OECS Authority.

Responding to his St. Lucia counterpart Minister Menissa Rambally, Antigua and Barbuda’s Hilson Baptiste initiated a discussion among all government ministers present at the just concluded visioning meeting on the second OECS Human Development Report (HDR).

Minister Baptiste told the OECS News Link an offer by St. Kitts-Nevis to host the first meeting of OECS Ministers of Social Transformation and Ministers of Finance was among the outcomes of the dialogue.

“That was a very good meeting. What we have planned to do is to begin to have the OECS Ministers of Finance and the Ministers of Social Transformation have a convention. I think the Minister from St. Kitts-Nevis agreed to be the host for that meeting in the not too distant future so that we can begin to look at how we can harmonize our efforts and prepare to look at harmonizing the laws through the region. So we have a lot of work to do.”

St. Lucia’s Minister for Social Transformation Menissa Rambally proposed a meeting of OECS Ministers for Social Transformation as well as Finance Ministers while addressing the opening ceremony of the OECS Human development Report conference. The St. Kitts-Nevis Minister for Social Transformation Sam Condor also attended the meeting. Minister Baptiste echoes his colleague’s sentiments that it is time for a new kind of action. "It is very important because we have to put the social programme at the top of the agenda. Right now many countries don’t seem to give much thought to the social programmes and we as ministers have a task in trying to get them to understand the importance of social transformation in the development of our countries. The social programme is as important as the economic programme or any other programme. So when the budget is thought of,enough finance and thought is given to policies and programmes that relate to social development." The head of the OECS Social Policy Development Unit Ezra Jn Baptiste told the OECS News Link the meeting achieved its main objective in recommending a theme for the second Human Development Report. However some minor adjustments are being made to the wording of the theme. Youth development, Plans for the disabled, Social Protection, Migration, Labour, Employment and the CSME as well as Population and Development in the Caribbean are some of the issues discussed at the recent meeting. The importance of media support in the Human Development Report planning and finalization process was also highlighted. 

The recent planning meeting of the theme for the second Human Development Report is part of the preparatory stage which is expected to last normally around six months, followed by the launching of the report. The second Human Development Report is due within 2007.