Social justice - the foundation for sustainable Caribbean transformation

The International Labour Organization, through its Decent Work Team and Office for the Caribbean, in collaboration with the Ministry of Labour in Guyana, will host the Twelfth Subregional ILO Meeting of Caribbean Labour Ministers from 23-25 May 2023 in Georgetown, Guyana. This Meeting will entail the participation of Ministers of Labour from thirteen ILO member States and nine non-metropolitan territories of the English and Dutch-speaking Caribbean.

Cognisant that , Caribbean countries, most of them Small Island Developing States (SIDS)/ Small Highly Indebted Middle Income Countries (SHIMICs), face the daunting task of transforming the structural bases of their economies and engineering resilient societies in the current context of plural crises, the ILO Caribbean Office has focused much of its technical assistance over the last three years, on supporting member States’ efforts to integrate the Decent Work Agenda in how Caribbean labour markets prepare for, respond to, and otherwise recover from crises.

Meeting objectives

• provide a forum for Caribbean Labour Ministers and social Partners to exchange perspectives on the global, regional, and national actions required to accelerate the mainstreaming of social justice for transformative socio-economic development in the current multi-crisis context.
• address labour migration as a potential enabler of decent work and acceleration factor in Caribbean development, including the importance of systemic, rights-based, inclusive approaches, to addressing governance challenges in a hyper-mobile region.
• examine Caribbean progress on Just Transition policy and institutional mechanisms and determine priorities for action and ILO technical assistance for the 2024-25 biennium.

Organization of the meeting

The Meeting is designed around three thematic clusters:

1. Social Justice – the bedrock for a human-centred recovery and Caribbean socio-economic transformation;
2. Labour migration and mobility in the Caribbean; and
3. Strategic considerations and technical actions to accelerate a Just Transition in the Caribbean, including national action on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work.

In addition to its focus on the above three themes, the Meeting will take stock of developments since the last Ministerial Meeting and consider a brief report on the support provided by the ILO to the Constituents during the pandemic and in the current context of recovery.

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