(L to R) Tom Olson, UNICEF Representative for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean; Hon. Marcella Liburd, Minister of Health, Social Services, Community Development, Culture and Gender Affairs; Michelle Gyles-McDonnough, UN Resident Coordinator, Barbados and the OECS; Osmond Petty, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education

The realisation of children’s rights in the Eastern Caribbean was the primary focus of a high-level gathering from June 1 – 3 at the St. Kitts Marriott Resort of the major stakeholders involved in a four-year program tasked to monitor and evaluate the region’s social policies enacted to protect its most vulnerable citizens.

In a June 1 press conference, representatives from the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis, UNICEF, and the parent United Nations organization provided overviews of the goals involved in the mid-term review of the 2008 – 2011 multi-country UNICEF programme, “Social Policy, Monitoring and Evaluation for Children’s Rights.”

“UNICEF has always been a firm supporter of our children, and this gives us another opportunity to put our children at center stage,” said the Hon. Marcella Liburd, Minister of Health, Social Services, Community Development, Culture and Gender Affairs.

The conference, held under a theme of “Re-thinking the Agenda for Children” entailed a rigorous review of the progress made on behalf of the region’s children. Such a review is mandated for a UNICEF program at its mid-point, in order to determine if the set goals and objectives were being met.

Tom Olson, UNICEF Representative for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, outlined the scope of the review.

“Together here in St. Kitts and Nevis, we have participation at the ministerial level from all ten OECS countries, together with their technical support,” he said. “One of the things we are looking at is what have we achieved with the current programme in the last two and a half to three years. The second area to be evaluated is, are we, UNICEF, relevant in the current situation in the Caribbean? Do we contribute to the social and economic development?

“Third, we are going to start looking toward the future, and to see how we, together with government and civil society can continue to build a Caribbean fit for all children, and for the next generation.”

The four-year programme, based strongly on the principles of human rights and gender equality, was promulgated to be in accord with the UN Conventions on the Rights of the Child, and the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women. Among the goals was to encourage and support child-friendly and gender-sensitive legislation within participating nations, and to determine if policies and budgets were sufficient to achieve them.

By its conclusion in 2011, the programme’s stakeholders want to ensure that children’s and women’s issues are increasingly integrated into key policies, and that other measures, such as a comprehensive response to reports of sexual abuse involving children, the creation of child-friendly environments within schools, and insuring that children have universal access to key life-skills programmes and early childhood development services.

Over the three days of the mid-term review conference, attendees heard from a variety of speakers, including St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Dr. Denzil Douglas; Enrique Delamonica, UNICEF Regional Advisor for Social Policy; Dr. James Fletcher, OECS Director, Social Development; and Michelle Gyles-McDonnough, UN Resident Coordinator, Barbados and the OECS, among others.

The 10 countries participating in the UNICEF program are: Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, the British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and the Turks and Caicos Islands.