Tomorrow, the International Labour Organisation (ILO), in collaboration with the government of the Bahamas, will host the ninth ILO meeting of Caribbean Ministers of Labour, which will bring together ministers, permanent secretaries and representatives of the Caribbean Congress of Labour and the Caribbean Employers' Confederation.
High on the agenda will be the issue of sustainability in regional economic initiatives as the discussion works to come to grips with the relationship of labour to the theme, "Decent Work for Sustainable Development."
At the ILO's 18th American Regional Meeting in October 2014, the call was made for policies that would mitigate the impact of climate change on Small Island Developing States (SIDS). That was during the formal International Year of SIDS, and now the challenge is to move forward with purpose on the multiple missions outlined in 1992 as Agenda 21 by the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development.
Linking human potential and employment opportunities to this mission is a bold call to regional leaders to acknowledge both the challenges that climate change will bring to the region and the need to improve the prospects for relevant and useful youth employment in the Caribbean region.What the ILO describes as decent work is really purposeful work, projects and industries that have a real and sustainable impact on the communities in which they operate, bringing dignity to the employed and measurable improvements to the nations in which they are based.
The challenges faced by SIDS have been largely identified and codified since the first adoption of Agenda 21 and summarised into a formal document that clarifies the issues, which triangulate between human resource, geography and economic constraints.
Among the significant challenges faced by the decent work agenda in the Caribbean are the effective use of a narrow range of resources, many of which are severely limited, the high cost of infrastructure and administration because of the smaller size of markets, and the need to protect a high level of biodiversity in small geographies that limit the overall numbers of distinct species.
These issues are amplified by a deeply embedded history of colonial exploitation and the development patterns that have succeeded them, which tend to strip mine rather than nurture these environmental treasures.As a result, with a relatively shallow well of resources on which to draw, small islands find themselves in the unusual situation of being driven by economies which are designed to suck those assets dry.
Some aspects of this week's deliberations will be beyond considerations of labour. Issues like climate change and the environmental factors that arise from it will be better met by political pressure and inspired example from within the region, but an engaged regional contemplation of these environmental factors and a more complete understanding of what the Caribbean archipelago is really facing today will infuse the discussions with a sense of urgency.
The acidification of the oceans, rising high-tide levels and changing weather patterns are only some of the more obvious challenges that climate change has brought to the region. Leading by example, devising strategies to make use of the region's human resources, in ways that make it clear to the first world and emerging nations that are the largest polluters that the region intends to own and manage the problem, will be critical to sparking international focus on the problems that face the Caribbean.