In the past two years, while anti-globalisation protests in the world's capitals have attracted much publicity, a quiet revolution in economic governance has been taking place across the region of the Greater Caribbean.

Civil society organizations have been preparing position papers on trade negotiations, educating their members on the issues and lobbying governments to include social concerns on the negotiating agenda. In some instances they have worked with officials in formulating negotiating positions. Regional alliances have been made, promoting integration from below and facilitating dialogue across language barriers.

At the Quebec Summit of the Americas in April, over 60 NGO representatives met with the U.S. and Canadian trade ministers, urging attention to the social dimension of hemispheric integration. Their proposals had been developed out of a series of national and regional consultations which counted with vigorous participation from the Caribbean, coordinated by the Caribbean Reference Group (CRG). The CRG groups eight NGO networks with over 1,000 member organizations from the English-speaking Caribbean, Haiti and the Dominican Republic and representing women, labour, economists, farmers and development NGOs. It is organized by the Caribbean Policy Development Centre (CPDC), which is recognized by CARICOM as a social partner.

The CRG proposed that poverty reduction should be the central objective of hemispheric trade liberalization, utilizing an inter-American Social Development Pact established to provide for health, education and social welfare, giving special consideration to small vulnerable economies, and granting a ten-year reprieve from full reciprocity for highly indebted countries.

The CPDC also participated in the ACP Civil Society Forum on the successor to the Lome Agreement, which obtained observer status and speaking rights at the ACP-EU Joint Assembly. The Forum won recognition of the role of civil society in the design, monitoring, implementation and management of the new EU-ACP trade framework. Civil Society pressure helped to ensure the inclusion of reference to the vulnerability of small, landlocked and island countries.

In Central America, 20 civil society organizations working as a Consultative Committee with the Integration Secretariat came up with 24 project proposals for consideration at the EU-Central America Summit in early 2001. In Mexico, the Citizens' Alliance secured commitments from the new Fox Administration to set up a special office in the Presidency for liaison with civil society and to establish a coordination system for the protection and defence of the rights of children and adolescents.

Civil society participation has its contradictions. While NGOs press for improvements in trade agreements, many question whether the basic rules of the WTO and the Bretton Woods institutions are compatible with poverty reduction. Official commitments to involve NGOs in policy making often lack specific provisions to give them effect, leading to charges of tokenism. On the other hand, critics question the political legitimacy of NGOs because many depend on foreign funding and some allegedly lack transparency and internal democracy.

The assessment of civil society participation took place at a workshop held in Santo Domingo on September 28-29 convened by CRIES, a regional network of research NGOs recognised by the ACS as a Social Partner, with support from the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung. It will be circulated at the VII Meeting of the ACS Ministerial Council, which immediately precedes the 3rd ACS Summit in Margarita Island, Venezuela, in December this year.

Prof. Norman Girvan is Secretary General of the Association of Caribbean States. The views expressed are not necessarily the official views of the ACS.

October 4, 2001