It's called the Barbados plan of action, also known as "what have you done for me lately" where developing countries which committed to first world endorsed development strategies are now queuing up for "the big payback." This week, 60 representatives from 44 developing island states are in Belize to come up with a collective strategy which will be taken to a full international review meeting in Mauritius in January of next year.
Today, Belize's ambassador to the United Nations, Stuart Leslie said the meeting is about turning the tables between servants and masters.
Stuart Leslie Ambassador to the U.N.
“What we said to the international community: these countries will get to this place in its growth and its sustainable development and so now its been ten years since we’ve said that and so now we are going back and looking back at all the things that we have done. Looking at the challenges that we have faced and the new challenges. For example ten years ago HIV and AIDS was not a major issue for countries like Belize and the Caribbean. Now the Caribbean is the second most vulnerable in the region. So what we are doing now, in the world actually the Caribbean is second to Sub Saharan Africa. This is an issue that we have to deal with you know.”
“And so what we are doing now is sitting down and we’re coming up with a ten year review. we are looking at what we have done, what we need to do and we are looking at the new challenges that face us.”
“We are also going there and saying, listen you told us as an international community that we need to do these things and if we do these things you’ll do these things. we did what we have to do. did you do what you had to do?”
The workshop concludes on Thursday.