The CARICOM Secretariat is currently reviewing a proposal from the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) for collaborative efforts to enhance human development in the Region. Assistant Secretary-General, Human and Social Development at the CARICOM Secretariat, Dr. Douglas Slater, has advised that the CARICOM Secretariat is currently reviewing the proposal that FIFA submitted, a release from the Secretariat today stated.
Dr Slater welcomed the enthusiasm of FIFA Director for Football in Africa and the Caribbean, Mr. Veron Mosengo-Omda, who outlined some of the details of the proposal in a presentation to the Thirty-Fourth Meeting of the Council for Human and Social Development (COHSOD) at the CARICOM Secretariat on Thursday, 3 May, 2018.
In his presentation, Mr. Mosengo-Omda said it was FIFA’s intention to start a Regional Primary School Football Competition with the main objective of strengthening the sport across the Region. He said that such an initiative was important to the moral and social fabric of the Region and noted that sports, specifically football, could be used as a vehicle to combat social ills that many times were associated with youths.
Assistant Secretary-General Slater also acknowledged the importance of sports, including football, in contributing to human resource development, which is the focus of the COHSOD Meeting.
Regarding whether or not CARICOM would be signing an MOU with FIFA, Dr. Slater said a decision would be made after the assessment of the document was completed, the release added.
The Thirty-Fourth COHSOD is being held under the theme ‘Positioning Human Resource Development as Central to Caribbean Resilience and Development’. The main purpose of the Meeting is to devise an implementation plan for the Human Resource Development 2030 Strategy which was endorsed by the CARICOM Heads of Government in July 2017. The Strategy was developed by the HRD Commission with technical and financial support from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB).
