Defining a Common Agenda for People-Centred Development in the Caribbean

To take stock of where the Caribbean sub-region stands and define actions to accelerate progress centering human rights in solutions to the sub-region’s development challenges, the Caribbean Forum on Population and Development reflected on implementation of the Montevideo Consensus on Population and Development.

The sub-regional forum, which gathered 15 countries and territories, was hosted by  the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, the Government of Antigua and Barbuda, and UNFPA on 4 and 5 September 2023 in St Johns, Antigua and Barbuda. 

The forum’s discussions were informed by the five-year national review reports of seven countries, assessing progress,  challenges and recommendations for the full implementation of the Montevideo Consensus. The sessions, which included government officials, policymakers, parliamentarians, academics, youth leaders and civil society representatives, focused on the issues that are critical to positive progress in the sub-region. This included migration, ageing, climate change, high adolescent pregnancy rates, gender-based violence and violence that affects especially young people. Considering the region is poised to have the highest levels of child marriage if trends persist, and the rates of maternal mortality are particularly high, especially for Afrodescendent women and girls, the forum reflected on the required actions to turn these outcomes around.

“We all hold great power, and we must use it – to build peaceful societies so women and girls and people of all types of ability can live in dignity, charting their own life course in larger freedom,” Dr. Natalia Kanem, UNFPA’s executive director, said. The forum’s  summary of issues will inform a Common Agenda to fulfill commitments of the Montevideo Consensus and the ICPD Programme of Action.

This sub-regional review contributes to the regional review of 30 years of implementation of the ICPD and takes place before the fifth Meeting of Presiding Officers and the Extraordinary Session for the Commemoration of the 10 Years of the Adoption of the Montevideo Consensus; the fourth Small Island Developing States Conference and the Summit of the Future.