Building bridges: what more can be done to facilitate expertise sharing between the Caribbean and the diaspora in the UK?

The talk was in the context of the third Wilton Park meeting bringing the new and next generation of Caribbean leaders together. The aim was to encourage innovative thinking for the region through highly participative discussions between young leaders and key experts, and building a growing network and community of individuals from across the region who are passionate about the positive future for the Caribbean, and who can use their passion, their skills and work with this network to build an entrepreneurial spirit of collaboration across the region.

Caribbean 2030 was initiated to create an active network of new and younger leaders from across the region who can work towards realising the full potential of the Caribbean region. The Caribbean Policy Research Institute (CAPRI), Wilton Park and the Foreign Commonwealth Office have been the major partners of the initiative since the first Caribbean 2030 meeting of new and next generation of leaders which took place in the United Kingdom (UK) in June 2015. Among the participants were politicians, innovators, entrepreneurs, educators, communications specialists and diaspora members. At that meeting, the participants articulated their vision for the Caribbean. Governance challenges, transnational crime, the decline of regional industries, international diplomacy, disaster vulnerability and energy security were some of the issues discussed. A discussion of the key issues raised and vision outlined is summarised in the conference report at

https://www.wiltonpark.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/WP1404- Report.pdf

The Caribbean 2030 initiative is a UK-Caribbean partnership including CaPRI, the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the UK-based Caribbean Council and JN Foundation.
Our first meeting took place in the UK in June 2015. The young leaders identified their visions for the future direction for the region. The outcomes from the discussion are provided in the report.

The second meeting took place in Jamaica in February 2016 June and focused on identifying the groups’ ambitions for four key themes to support innovation and entrepreneurship: Trade within and beyond the region; Finance, credit and business growth; IT infrastructure/technology and open/big data; Green growth and sustainability. The outcomes from the discussion are provided in the report.

This third Forum will build on the first two meetings with the specific aim of:
Supporting this network of new and next generation of Caribbean leaders to develop their outline vision for the Caribbean for 2030
Focusing on specific issues, primarily green growth and good governance, that enable the region to prosper, bringing people together from different countries and sectors, sharing cross-region expertise and ideas
Enabling the group to identify ways to turn their aspirations into action
Providing an opportunity to link the group to the UK and the Caribbean diaspora in the UK, and with other key external stakeholders who they might not otherwise.

In association with teh Caribbean Policy Research Institute (CaPRI), the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and the Caribbean Council (UK), wiht support from the British Virgin Islands Government Office in London.