Regional ICT Steering Committee

The CARICOM Secretariat formed the Regional ICT Steering Committee in January 2005.  This Committee was onstituted as one mechanism for dealing with regional Information Society and ICT issues.  The Committee is funded under the 9th EDF project.

The Regional ICT Steering Committee serves as a “think-tank” for the CARICOM Secretariat. It is viewed as a mechanism to manage and coordinate the advancement of ICT and the Information Society in the Region. See also Discussion Forum here

The Functions of the Regional ICT Steering Committee include:

1. Identifying issues relevant to the broad range of information society stakeholders.
2. Overseeing, reviewing, commenting on, and providing expertise during
   
   the preparation of draft policy documents, based on the issues
   
   previously identified;
3. Identifying sources of, and facilitating access to, information and expertise relevant to the regional development process;
4. Acting as ICT stakeholder representatives to analyse issues, generate options and make recommendations as appropriate;
5. Providing feedback and information to stakeholder groups as appropriate.
6. Identifying areas of priority to the Region and suggested strategies to deal with these priority areas;
7. Providing a coordinating role in respect of the approach to donors and the Private Sector for funding;
8. Providing a coordinating role with respect to the implementation of
   
   ICT programmes and projects and the use of products resulting from ICT
   
   programmes and projects.
9. Advising on global best practices.
10. Reporting on the work of the Committee to the CARICOM/CARIFORUM Secretary-General.

The Regional ICT Steering Committee comprises of representatives from the CARICOM Member States and Associate Members, and selected regional organisations. The Member States are Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.  The Associate  Member States are

Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands and Turks and Caicos.

The Regional Organisations which are members of the Steering Committee are listed below:

• Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI)
• Caribbean Association of Industry and Commerce (CAIC)
• Caribbean Broadcasting Union (CBU)
• Caribbean Centre for Development Administration (CARICAD)
• Caribbean Congress of Labour (CCL)
• Caribbean Development Bank (CDB)
• Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC)
• Caribbean Export Development Agency (Caribbean Export)
• Caribbean ICT Stakeholders Virtual Community (CIVIC) - DevNet
• Caribbean Information Action Group (CARINFO)
• Caribbean knowledge and Learning Network (CKLN)
• Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (CRNM)
• Caribbean Telecommunications Union (CTU)
• CARICOM Regional Organisation for Standards and Quality (CROSQ)
• Organisation of eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Secretariat
• The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency (CDEMA)
• The CARICOM Youth Ambassadors
• University of Guyana (UG)
• University of the West Indies (UWI)
  • Anton de Kom Universiteit van Suriname
  • University of Belize
  • Université d'Etat d'Haiti

Others:

• Dominican Republic
• French OCTs

The Regional ICT Steering Committee is comprised of five (5)

sub-committees. They are Access, Connectivity and Internet Governance;

Capacity Building; Business, Trade, Culture and Disaster Management;

Statistics; and Regional Partnerships.