While CARICOM is on my Mind, Meet the S-G La Rocque!

For the past couple of weeks, I've been getting "Google ALerts" on CARICOM, and almost always, it is something negative about CARICOM.

Apart from the fact that CARICOM made a statement supporting the rebels of the TNC in Libya, I continue to question the real relevance of CARICOM in the Caribbean region. Not because it does not count--far from it--but what exactly it is doing to assert itself these days.

I read that they have a new secretary-general--by name La Rocque. He has vowed, as per this article here, to do quite a number of things to dynamise CARICOM, including cutting down on international travel and using video-conferencing instead! Secondly, "overtime" is out of the window.

You would think that for an organisation that has been around since 1973, they would have a lot more going for them than free movement and a Caribbean Single Market Economy scheme. CARICOM turned 38 on 1st August, but I sense that it is difficult to really speculate on what concretely it might be remembered for. Even on free movement, I read that it is only a few days ago that a press release issued stated that Jamaicans can now travel hassle-free. This has come as a result of "incidences" involving Jamaicans -- apparently! How miscreants from a member state might affect the region's free movement is beyond me -- but that is just me.

I do not for any second want to castigate CARICOM or even compare it with ECOWAS or SADC (comparable only by member countries, where ECOWAS has 15 and SADC 14). But I am still itching to compare the free movement system currently in CARICOM and ECOWAS.

ECOWAS has had free movement of its citizens since 1979. Regrettably that has meant that during the inter-necine wars of Liberia(affecting the Mano River Union countries of Liberia/Sierra Leone/Cote d'ivoire/Guinea) of the early nineties, it meant that (child) soldiers and mercenaries could move freely through the sub-region's porous borders, as well reside in ECOWAS member states for minimum ninety-days without hindrance. That ECOWAS member states have yet to fully ratify supplementary protocols associated with free movement, including setting up committees to monitor free movement (no country has done that yet!) speaks to the considerable work on free movement ECOWAS still needs to do.

CARICOM, conversely, seems to be working hard, albeit slowly.

I cannot foresee, in the 21st century, any regional integration project that underplays free movement; it just does not work. So I want to implore that given Caribbean countries are small, and that they have the CSME working better for  them than what might be here in the ECOWAS sub-region, they get serious on the regional integration project of helping them manage globalisation and its many adverse impacts.

Statements supporting Libyan rebels are curious--at a time when even the African Union has been very slow to recognise them--and interesting: they will not make CARICOM grow to be the community it can become, so CARICOM, more grease to your elbows after your 38th anniversary on 1st August this year. But, surely, you can do better?

As to whether La Rocque can be the saviour to CARICOM observers want, we live in vain expectation!

Avoiding a "Prime Ministerial / Piecemeal / Paper-based / People-Less" Regional Integration in the Caribbean

"I can vividly recall in a public forum I recently attended, one lady in her verbal castration of regional leaders, described their approach to the integration movement, as a “Prime Ministerial, piecemeal, paper-based and people-less process” ".--Anselm Caines

Once in a while, you come across an article on regional integration that is just too juicy and poignant to let go off. This one, by one Anselm Caines, writing in SKNVIBES.com is one of them.

His article operates from the premiss of an insightful statement made by a lady of regional leaders, which I have quoted above.

Caines proceeds to expatiate his piece on the basis of the four points by the lady. I daresay many regional integration initiatives world-wide could do with a reading of this piece. Caines well and truly nips it in the bud with the following four points.

PRIME MINISTERIAL

Caribbean integration (like much integration processes) remains at the realm of abstraction. In other words, ordinary people do not feel any connection to the process. Whether this is the EU, ECOWAS, SADC, or MERCOSUR, I suspect that many of these regional integration initiatives(RIAs) must work harder on their communication strategies to ensure that integration process makes sense, is real and palpable. Despite the success of the Schengen area in the EU, it is reported that many Europeans have a problem with a Europe out there divorced from the realities of the EU's problems.

The lesson is for the diplomats to TAKE integration to the schools, the communities, the citizens.

ECOWAS's Community Development Programme, in this respect, looks interesting, but it is still problematic. This is because of how it has been structured--what with the identification of networks that will, in effect, serve as proxies for the policy-makers at the ECOWAS level.

PIECEMEAL

Integration initiatives fail because they are rarely endorsed by the public before they become policy. Radio and TV spots alone are insufficient. They must be sustained and dynamised.

In this respect the UEMOA-ECOWAS-sponsored "Caravan d'integration" that will end very soon (and which started in May in Senegal) remains a flop, because they passed through Ghana, but not one radio station was sensitised about their coming. For those of us who knew, too, we were not contacted to be briefed on updates. That is a whole opportunity to showcase West African regional integration efforts WASTED!

PAPER-BASED

These RIAs exist solely on paper. In my view, even passports are a symbolic representation of a regional integration on its way to being actualised Other solutions to counter this include Model meetings, as with The Hague International Model United Nations; Model AU; Model NATO; Model ECOWAS. Kids representing diplomats are sure ways of ensuring research is done, and energies motivated towards the idea of regional integration.

PEOPLE-LESS

Without people, a community of people around a regional integration initiative is baseless. Caines writes:

Remember, matters such as freedom of movement of persons and the right to establish businesses in any member state are very sensitive issues that cannot truly be expected to succeed if half of our populace is indifferent and apathetic to such principles.

What about the teachers union and doctors throughout our Federation? Were they thoroughly consulted so that they could offer their views as to the scope of the social shocks that will inevitably follow

The flip-side is that we, as citizens, must also take an interest in what the implications of these initiatives are for us. If we are business-inclined, we might want to get to know what freedom of movement means so that we can maximise our opportunity as community citizens in the sub-region. Freedom of movement is an important and critical element, for example, for the informal sectors in, say, the ECOWAS sub-region. While the traders might be clueless about what is contained in the 1979 ECOWAS protocols on freedom of movement, they at least know they can -- challenges of bribes notwithstanding -- move across borders with a mere passport.

A more literate person would want to go further and find out how freedom of movement can help with his business across the sub-region.

In the final analysis, if I have not pointed out the article already, let me do so here. You can read it by clicking here.

These are some of the ideas we need to facilitate a critical and progressive outlook on regional integration!

More than MERCOSUR on My Mind: Goodbye to the OAS?

Is there something about Cancun?

First, WTO trade talks collapse there in 2003. Now, seven years later it is playing host to the birth of a new regional organization—the putative Community of Latin American and Caribbean States.

Truth be told, given the gargantuan size of the 32-member RIO group (comprising Latin American and Caribbean states) that has been around since 1986, it was only a matter of time before a formal name be ascribed to the grouping!

As an ardent regional integrationist, who is also a citizen of the Pan-African grouping (that comprises no less than 53 member states), this proposition looks like a delicious response to not just the US and Canada, but the paradigm of uniting under a regional umbrella.

More importantly, it looks to me like members of the Rio group have looked left and right, seen the EU, and the AU, probably heard of developments in East Asia of a Community , and thought "why not in Latin America?"

In my view, the reason why this Community would work is because AU countries, with their eight UNECA-mandated RECs are managing very well, thankyou! Xinhua thoughtfully provided a list of sub-regional organizations in that region—and it’s quite impressive. There are some nine around, with the oldest(Latin American Parliament) having been established in 1964 and the youngest as recently as….

If what I am reading is correct, then the RIO group is keen to have an economic community that would not just comprise 32 members of the Latin American and Caribbean states, but exclude the US and Canada (unlike the OAS). I am sure sometimes AU states have been keen to have an AU without some North African countries that make up the members of the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU)!

But on the specific issue of regionalism in this region, I foresee this Community to be more akin to that of an AU in the way it both accepts and accommodates the sub-regional groups, but contemporaneously dissimilar in the way it has been explicit about excluding Canada and the United States.

Honestly speaking, I do not foresee the AU excluding North Africa [especially because of the instrumental role played by Libya] anytime soon. Libyan leader al-Qaddafi’s pivotal role in the AU has perhaps put paid to the desire to jettison any element of the Arab contingent!?

Jamaica Pooh-Poohs the CARICOM Special Visa; Whither ECLAC?

In a post reminiscent of this one, I am re-visiting the issue of the CARICOM Special visa for the very fact that yesterday was the day that visa "ended".

Meaning that now, countries like CARICOM-member Jamaica will...

"...revert to its original national laws and policies as they relate to immigration, customs and other measures which were temporarily suspended for the hosting of the CWC 2007 games,"

At least, so said a ministry coming from the Ministry of National Security.

It further

instructed visitors to check with their respective country authorities, and or their diplomatic and or consular offices to ascertain if they are required to have a national visa to enter the particular country
from:http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20070516/lead/lead4.html

I am not very sure about how Jamaica sees itself ensconced within the CARICOM region as a merely tourist destination, but for sure, it has issues about retaining the visa, and one of them is this:

Jamaica has always been talking about diversifying, that we don't put our eggs in one basket," he said. "Now the basket that is affected is the same one that requires the CARICOM visa. So, rather than encouraging a developing market, the CARICOM visa will have the opposite effect of driving that market to other places that will not have such a visa requirement."

I can understand that even if other members of CARICOM are in favour of the idea, it could not be extended or mooted just like that. There will, in fact, be a meeting in July in Barbados--not necessarily to discuss this issue. However, I am sensing that if other member states feel compelled to raise the issue, then why not.

This development in the CARICOM region might seem odd to the casual observer like myself who feels that CARICOM is a region that has some similarities with regions like the West African one of ECOWAS. I couldn't be more wrong, for this is one of the things that underscores the importance of comparative studies of regional integration, which serve to help people get round in their mind what elements of a regional integration agreement can be emulated, or extrapolated to another one.

The Belgium-based United Nations Univeristy's UNU-CRIS does a great job in reminding us of the importance of regional integration in the rapidly-changing landscape of international relations. It asks five major questions:

We are a research and training programme of the United Nations University that is driven by the following questions:

Question 1: What is happening in the world - Past, present and future - with regard to regional integration processes?
Question 2: What governance structures are emerging through regional integration?
Question 3: How can regional integration contribute to peace and human security in the framework of the UN?
Question 4: How can regional integration contribute to the development of LDCs?
Question 5: How do people and societies deal with regional integration?

Finally, I believe that in asking those questions, we can begin to advance on the theory and practice of regional integration that is people-centred, as well as one that comprehensively bridges the disconnect that is perceived to exist between regional economic communities and the United Nations.

I look forward to the day when in the discussion of CARICOM, there is an ineluctable, or inevitable, involvement of the central role of the UN's regional commission for that region, ECLAC.

Monday Analysis : Of Subregional Imperatives and Regional Integration: CARICOM, IGAD, ECOWAS

J'aimerais commencer en disant "merci" a winbald, le blogger senegalais, qui frequente cette-site-ci. Meme s'il y a longtemps que j'ai visite ton site, c'est tres acceuillant--en fait, ca chauffe le coeur--qu'un blogger ouest-africain suit le site.

All that said, the primary objective of this blog has, thus far, been to raise awareness on the subject of regional integration to the casual visitor(aficionados are not excluded!).

You could say , like the WTO, regional integration is all the rage these days. I would say more specifically, free trade areas (FTAs), what with Japan signing an FTA with ASEAN, or India signing one with non-SAARC countries.

The advocacy website Bilaterals does a great job of providing an-almost daily overview of FTAs signed worldwide.

This blog, however, choses to look at the initiatives; the developments; and the trends in regional integration.

It is not a coincidence that last week, I covered IGAD and CARICOM--perhaps little-known to most Westerners, and even to those in my own backyard of ECOWAS.

Affinity in Conflict?
I find IGAD particulary interesting because from the little research I conducted on it, it looks very comparable to ECOWAS--for one prime reason: its propensity for conflict.

IGAD countries may be small, but most (c.f. Ethiopia/Eritrea/Somalia) are embroiled in some quasi-internecine conflict or other. Look at Sudan--also an IGAD member--with conflict brewing right there in Darfur.

Parallels with West Africa in that regard are uncanny. Remember the Charles Taylor days of Liberia , in 1990; Sierra Leone--before the British intervention; Togo, with its never-ending rule of Eyadema, till his demise in 2005?

Sub-regional imperatives
Armed conflict is far from new in West Africa. Thankfully, ECOWAS, by what I would call its sub-regional imperative of conflict resolution and conflict management has made serious and significant strides in this area. I can foresee IGAD going the route of maximising its experience on conflict for the benefit of the region and the continent as a whole.

CARICOM, conversely, is conflict-free. Arguably, its sub-regional imperative would be different . That said, it is very telling that in the designation, or creation, of the so-called "Single Domestic Space", as outlined below,it chose to create IMPACS--a regional-space-and-security-regulating agency. This seems to be something which appears non-existent in ECOWAS, despite de jure visa-free travel not only having been established, but being, as it were, comprehensively applicable throughout the ECOWAS countries. Like I said last week, a regional organisation that considers the security of its citizens of utmost importance is certainly a serious one!

Hegemon
Finally, last week, I touched on Kenya being the peacebroker for the Ethiopia-Eritrea dispute. Kenya can far from anything be called a hegemon, on account of its size, as compared to Sudan, but in the East African Community, it certainly seems to be quite a leader, among its friends of Uganda, Tanzania, and now Rwanda and Burundi--set to join the community soon.

Kenya looks set to be proactive in these two regional blocs, and I suspect one should begin to keep its eye out for it in the near future.

How Sport has Greatly United CARICOM

Cricket is a boon to the enjoyment of spectator-sport by the British and the Caribbeans like no other game. When you get sport uniting people, it becomes a testament of how people can actually live together.

No greater place has this been manifested than the 15-member Carribean Community (CARICOM), established in 1973, where visas are freely available to CARICOM nationals who belong to the so-called "single domestic space":

Recipients of the visa are entitled to move freely through the 10 Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries comprising the Single Domestic Space which was established to facilitate visitors for Cricket World Cup 2007.


Air and sea passengers travelling between Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, St Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago now do so with minimal delays at the immigration counter. The measure remains in place until May 15, 2007.

from: http://www.caribbeannetnews.com/news-976--39-39--.html

We learn from the above-article that the space was created to "facilitate" visitors for the Cricket World Cup, which, according to a New Zealand-based website covering the Cricket World Cup

will take place in the Caribbean from 5 March to 28 April 2007. The games, including warm up matches, will be held in nine different countries: Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent & the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago

The article maintains:

A CARICOM Special Visa is required for the period 1 February to 15 May 2007 by all New Zealanders travelling to the region, including for the Cricket World Cup.

As to whether this CARICOM visa will now be an established thing is unclear, but what is clear, arguably, is that Cricket has set a precedent for regional integration.

At least, that is the simplistic version.

The other, more complicated version is that because it looks like a provisional measure for the Cricket World Cup, there is, ofcourse, little political discussion on the implications for the region of CARICOM.

That

stringent screening procedures have ensured that only valid, thoroughly-screened applicants receive visas [and] As a consequence, 732 applications have so far been denied...

suggests that any talk about an institutionalisation of the visa as a permanent feature of how CARICOM nationals and citizens move round is far from being on the table.

It looks like beyond the 15 May deadline, the special space for the CARICOM will no longer be in use. This prompts the question of why not, like ECOWAS, go ahead and make permanent the "single domestic space"?

I'm very happy with the CARICOM website. Other regional organisations could learn quite a bit from them! In all seriousness, when you check the website, you read about "The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Implementation Agency for Crime and Security (IMPACS), which is facilitating the Special Visa".

The interesting thing about this agency is this:

IMPACS was established as the implementation arm of a new Regional Architecture for the development and management of the CARICOM Regional Action Agenda on Crime and Security issues. IMPACS is headed by an Executive Director and reports to the CARICOM Council of Ministers responsible for National Security and Law and Enforcement.

IMPACS executes a broad portfolio which ranges from project management to research and resource mobilisation. Its overall objective is to enhance the individual and collective capacity of CARICOM member states to control crime and effectively participate in international counter crime and security initiatives

It is a given that any regional integration that takes into account the securing of its nationals and citizens is a region that is serious.