2025 Annual Coordination Meeting

Greetings everyone.

It is an honour to welcome all of you to Port of Spain for the Annual Coordination Meeting of the United Nations Multi-Country Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework.

Trinidad and Tobago is pleased to host this year’s gathering, and I thank you for your continued commitment to the development of our region and the well-being of our people.

If you take nothing else from my remarks this morning, one thing I would like to make unapologetically clear is that the time for talk and preparing reports is over and the moment for action is NOW.  Yes, we are all working for a brighter future, but guess what, the future is already upon us.

We meet at an important juncture. As the 2022–2026 Cooperation Framework enters its final year, we are simultaneously setting the stage for the next cycle of cooperation. This moment offers us both reflection and renewal, an opportunity to assess progress, confront the realities shaping our region and design a partnership agenda that is fit for purpose for the period 2027 to 2031.

The current MSDCF has provided a strong foundation, supporting efforts to strengthen economic resilience, expand social well-being, advance climate readiness and improve justice and security. These areas are just as relevant today as they were in 2022, yet the landscape around us has shifted. We face a more complex global environment, characterised by rising climate pressures, rapid digital transformation, demographic transitions, and emerging security challenges. These shifts call for deeper collaboration and sharper focus.

The Caribbean Multi-Country Analysis offers a timely and comprehensive look at these issues. It reminds us that the region is at a critical inflection point. Population changes, including ageing and the continued migration of skilled workers, are reshaping our social systems and labour markets. At the same time, technological change is advancing faster than many of our institutions can adapt. While digital transformation offers enormous opportunities for growth, service delivery and inclusion, gaps in access and skills threaten to widen inequality if we do not act decisively.

Climate change remains the most urgent and universal challenge we face. Intensifying hurricanes, warming temperatures, flooding, and coastal degradation are costing our countries billions of dollars annually and eroding hard-won development gains.

These impacts also strain fiscal space and limit our capacity to invest in the future. For Trinidad and Tobago, advancing our energy transition, improving water security, strengthening early-warning systems, and pursuing nature-based solutions are central national priorities, and we value the partnership of the UN system as we work to scale these efforts.

The analysis also underscores the continued challenge of crime and insecurity—an issue that affects growth, stability, and quality of life across the Caribbean. Whether rooted in gang activity, trafficking, illicit weapons, or domestic violence, these problems demand comprehensive, evidence-based solutions.

In Trinidad and Tobago, we are modernising our justice system, reinforcing border and maritime security, expanding community-focused prevention programmes, and strengthening responses to gender-based violence. These efforts benefit significantly from coordinated regional and UN support.

Migration and mobility present a dual reality—bringing talent and diversity while placing additional pressure on social services. As climate impacts intensify, the region must prepare for more movement of people. Trinidad and Tobago supports the strengthening of regional migration governance and inclusive protection frameworks, ensuring that mobility contributes to development rather than deepening vulnerability.

As we reflect on what has been achieved under the current MSDCF, we acknowledge meaningful progress across the region: support to MSMEs, improvements in social protection and health systems, advances in renewable energy and climate adaptation, strengthened data ecosystems, and enhanced cooperation on border security and migration. These achievements reflect the value of a coordinated, multi-country approach—one that reduces duplication, leverages shared expertise, and helps us address common challenges more effectively.

Trinidad and Tobago specifically, in collaboration with the UN has made tremendous efforts to facilitate progress in areas such as digital government, social protection assessment, statistical modernisation, youth development, and environmental management. These partnerships have tangible benefits and demonstrate what can be achieved when global expertise and national priorities are aligned.

As we turn towards the next Cooperation Framework, our task is to build on this foundation while responding to emerging needs with greater agility. The next cycle must support deeper economic transformation, recognising that the future of our region depends on innovation, diversification, skills development, and digital readiness. Trinidad and Tobago is advancing these priorities through our economic renewal agenda, investments in digital public infrastructure, and initiatives to strengthen innovation ecosystems—areas where ongoing UN collaboration will be essential.

The next framework must also accelerate the shift from vulnerability to resilience. This means embedding climate risk across every sector, strengthening disaster preparedness, improving water management, supporting climate-smart agriculture, and expanding access to climate finance. New financial instruments, including debt-for-climate swaps and resilience financing, will be critical for small island developing states like ours.

Finally, we must continue investing in governance, justice, and citizen security—including the growing frontier of cybersecurity and digital governance. It is essential that our region keeps pace with the evolving security landscape, and the UN can help provide the technical expertise and coordination needed to strengthen institutional capacity.

Throughout all of this, the principle of leaving no one behind must guide our work. Women and girls, youth, older persons, persons with disabilities, migrants and refugees, rural and underserved communities—all must be central to both the analysis and the action.

Colleagues, the challenges ahead are real, but so is our collective capacity to overcome them. The Caribbean’s strength has always been rooted in cooperation, in our ability to innovate, adapt and support one another.

Today’s meeting gives us the opportunity to take stock honestly, plan ambitiously and commit to shared action for a resilient and inclusive future.

Trinidad and Tobago remains fully committed to continue partnering with our regional neighbours and with the UN development system to ensure that the next Cooperation Framework delivers measurable, transformative results for the Caribbean people we serve.

I wish you all a productive, engaging and impactful day of discussions, keeping in mind that they must translate to clear, fair and positive action.

Thank you.