According to Senator Franka Alexis-Bernadine who led Grenada’s delegation to the three-week meeting, this critical issue has created a bit of controversy among larger members of the UNESCO Executive Board.
“The larger countries…seemed to have been lobbying the Secretary-General to move away from this ethical issue to focus more on other issues,” she said not revealing the identity of those countries due to existing diplomatic relations.
“You can see your funding slipping away right before your eyes as the bigger countries; one of which is from Latin America…convince the team on the ground that in actual fact this was no longer a priority for Small Island Developing States,” she said as she explained some of the subtleties that occurred at the meeting.
Grenada, Barbados and St Lucia are the only three islands representing the entire Caribbean Community (CARICOM) at UNESCO. Determined to lobby at all cost Senator Bernadine who is also Grenada’s Minister for Education said that they stood their ground and she said eventually the Board, “realized that our stance was not going to change in that regard.” More >>>
Location: Cayman Islands
