February meeting of the group

The 9 February 2009 meeting of the Caribbean Women's Network International was held in Room C in the United Nations Conference Building.
The special Guest was the Secretary General of CARICOM, Mr. Edwin Carrington, who addressed the group indicating among other things

1.that he was very impressed by the motives and reasoning of this group for being formed at this time;

2.that there were pressing concerns for the 15 Caribbean nations which made up CARICOM, especially in light of the global economic crisis;

3.that among the concerns, the most pressing was that of Crime and Drug Trafficking, citing the closure of the UN's Office for Drug Control in the region as an action that needed to be reversed to help to stem the increase of drug-related crime in the region;

4.that there was also the need to gain more specific attention to the needs of Caribbean countries, at least as much as that paid to Latin America (when we speak of Latin America and the Caribbean as one entity).

The meeting was attended by at least 20 members of the group and members of the CARICOM Secretariat along with the Secretary General, Mr. Edwin Carrington. We were also addressed by the Asst. Secretary-General, Foreign Policy and Community Relations, Mr. Colin Granderson.

Other members of the group who attended the meeting are invited to post their own summary or comments, especially with regard to how what we heard could impact our yet-developing mission.