CARICOM VIEW
agriculture research and the establishment of the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI); (5) The convening of one meeting of the Heads of the National Planning Agencies as provided for in Article 45 (2) of the Treaty on Coordination of National Development Planning. The coincidence of the bulging of mandates from the integration initiatives arising from the new Treaty of Chaguaramas and the imperative to respond to the shocks and potential dislocation from the international crisis placed major demands on the relatively small Secretariat. The demands were met through a combination of initiatives including the expansion of the core staff, the use of technical working groups drawing on the expertise of national administrations and regional institutions including the University of the West Indies (UWI) and the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB); and the use of short- and medium-term experts financed under technical assistance arrangements. At the same time, from the integration perspective, a number of factors slowed the positive energy of the movement between 1976 and 1979. The organisation lost staff. Relationships among the Member States deteriorated. The capacity of several States to bear their share of the cost of supporting integration weakened, The Conference failed to meet between April 1976 and November 1982 to give direction and impetus to the process and provide mandates for the Secretariat. And, to crown the situation, there was no Secretary-General in office for two years. These might have reduced the pressure on the Secretariat from increased mandates but increased the pressure to maintain the spirit in an increasingly negative environment. Positive effort resumed with the appointment of Barbadian, Dr Kurleigh King, a Director in the CDB and former Head of the Industrial Development Corporation of Barbados, as Secretary-General in October, 1978. Secretary-General King was a systems and organisational management specialist. He set about
A publication of the Caribbean Community
reorganising the structures and rebuilding the staff.
Among other things, CARICOM leaders agreed to:
His ascendancy coincided with another period of internal and external pressures. It was marked by the second oil shock and global recession; the re-emergence of internal trade imbalances between the Region’s oil exporting member and the other Member States; the emergence of the doctrines of structural adjustment, the Washington consensus; and pressures on social development activities which were significant in sustaining the integration process in the preceding period.
• A policy of ideological plurality; • A major and comprehensive programme to address all aspects of the energy challenge. They were facilitated by a five-year, US$5M grant from United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The CCS and the CDB were able to set up energy units to address the four major areas of the challenge in a coordinated manner;
Secretary-General William Demas (with sunglasses) engages the media. He is flanked by Edwin Carrington, who later became the longest serving Secretary-General, and Mr. Byron Blake, former Assistant Secretary-General, Trade and Economic Integration.
There was also the Grenadian revolution of March, 1979, when the Peoples Revolutionary Government (PRG) under Maurice Bishop seized power in Grenada. This opened a rift between the socialist leaning and the West-bending members of the Movement. All of these developments placed pressure on the technical and leadership capacity of the Secretariat. With the experience of the stagnation of the integration process fresh in mind, the Region seemed more determined to tackle the challenges from a Regional perspective. They were given a window by the ascendancy of the more liberal and socially conscious Jimmy Carter to the Presidency of the United States in January, 1979.
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• A major health sector management and training programme. This also benefited from a USAID grant and the Secretariat was able to put in place the capacity to mange it; and • Develop a Caribbean response to structural adjustment based on Caribbean expertise and experience. The 1979 to 1989 period represented, on balance, for the integration process and the Secretariat, an era of rebuilding and consolidation. It required persistence and self-effacing diplomacy which fitted the character of Secretaries-General King and Roderick Rainford.