Windward Islands Political Union - Budgetary Aspects Of The Unification Process

On January 14, 1991, the four Windward Islands of Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia. and St. Vincent and the Grenadines launched an initiative to create a political Union among themselves when they established the Regional Constituent Assembly of the Windward Islands on political union. The Assembly, or RCA as it came to be called, brought together forty-four persons drawn from political parties, the private sector, the churches, women, youth, trade unions and farmers organisations from the four islands of Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The mandate of the Assembly was" (a) "to consider and advise onthe question ofWindward Islands political union with specific reference to the economic and social viability of the union, economic costs of a union and the external relations and administrative implications of the union;" (b) to consider and advise on the possible forms of union, that is, whether the proposed union should be a state which is federal, unitary, or some other form; (c) to consider and advise on the structure of government and elements of a constitution which would be most appropriate to the union, including the administrative and electoral mechanisms."