Elizabeth Morgan | 47th CARICOM Heads of Government Conference: Recognising a stalwart of regional integration

The 47th session of the CARICOM Heads of Government Conference commenced on Sunday, July 28, in Grenada, after being postponed from the customary scheduled time of July 3-5 due to the passage of Hurricane Beryl.

As the conference commenced, weather forecasters were announcing that a tropical system in the Atlantic could be approaching the northwestern Caribbean islands as the most active months of the Atlantic hurricane season approach, August and September. This focuses minds.

The conference is being chaired by the Prime Minister of Grenada, the Hon Dickon Amiss Thomas Mitchell, who was elected in June 2022. Grenada, as of February 7, is also commemorating its 50th year of independence.

ORDER OF THE CARIBBEAN COMMUNITY

It also should be noted that the Grand Anse Declaration, which gave rise to the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME), was adopted at the 10th CARICOM Heads of Government Conference in July 1989, 35 years ago, when Roderick Rainford of Jamaica was Secretary General.

At this conference, the Order of the Caribbean Community (OCC) was awarded to two distinguished Caribbean nationals – cricketer Sir Clive Lloyd of Guyana; and Ambassador Roderick Rainford of Jamaica, Secretary General of CARICOM, 1983-1992, and Deputy Secretary General, 1980-1983.

In its March 4 editorial, The Gleaner made a case for Roderick Rainford of Jamaica to be honoured with the OCC. It was indeed surprising to read that Ambassador Rainford, who served two terms as CARICOM Secretary General, had not been so honoured 32 years after he left the CARICOM Secretariat.

While Clive Lloyd, West Indies Cricket captain during its golden years, is fondly remembered by many who loved cricket, I am not sure many will recall Roderick Rainford, who, in his tenure at the helm of CARICOM, began the work on a number of the items still on the conference’s agenda which aimed to strengthen and deepen regional integration.

RODERICK RAINFORD

Roderick George Rainford, now 84, was born on April 7, 1940 in Kingston. In his education, he attended Kingston Technical High School in the 1950s. He would later go on to attend the University of the West Indies (UWI), where he obtained a BSc in Economics in 1963. He then attended the University of Oxford where he obtained a BA in Jurisprudence and a diploma in Economic Development in 1966. He was a Rhodes Scholar.

Thereafter, Rainford was a resident tutor at the University of Zambia in Africa. He earned an MA in International Relations from the University of Toronto in 1971, and was awarded a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship in 1972. He also taught at The UWI.

He began his working life in 1958 at the Jamaica Library Service where he was successful in British Librarian examinations. After leaving university, he was appointed to administrative/policy posts in the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the Jamaica Industrial Development Corporation.

In 1980, Roderick Rainford, aged 40, went to work at the CARICOM Secretariat in Georgetown, Guyana, as Deputy Secretary General.

Rainford, a committed regionalist, has been described as a reserved, unassuming man who competently and patiently piloted CARICOM through a very difficult part of its history. In 1988, he was honoured by the Government of Jamaica for his services to the Caribbean Community. This was upgraded to the Order of Jamaica in 1992 for his exemplary service to regional integration.

The CARICOM press release reporting on Sunday’s OCC award states: “Dr Nesha Z Haniff Rainford, wife of Roderick Rainford, received the award on behalf of her husband. She traced his journey from childhood as the last of seven children whose parents had a powerful impact on his life through the values they instilled in him.”

“He’s the handiwork of his parents. The values they passed on to him were humility, discipline, hard work and self-respect, love of the land, and love of Jamaica,” she said.

She quoted from Rainford’s letter accepting the award in which he stated: “I am pleased to be included among the Caribbean patriots who have already received this distinction and I pledge to continue conducting my life in a manner worthy of this privilege.”

ON THE HEADS AGENDA

At this conference, CARICOM heads will be focused on climate change and sustainable development, which includes building resilience and securing climate finance, especially given the blow dealt to Grenada, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Barbados, and Jamaica by a Category 4/5 Hurricane Beryl at the beginning of July quite outside expectations. It further exposed weaknesses in CARICOM countries.

The threat of climate change was raised at the World Environment Conference in 1992 which was attended by CARICOM delegations guided by Roderick Rainford, who saw the importance of this issue for the region.

Rainford also saw the importance of strengthening CARICOM and thus played an important role in the adoption of the Grand Anse Declaration. The implementation of the CSME, including free movement of nationals, is still a work in progress on the conference agenda.

Food and nutrition security, which is also on the agenda, would not be an issue unfamiliar to Rodrick Rainford.

Although known for his patience and long-term view, I would imagine that Rainford, like others, would have liked to see CARICOM much further along in the implementation process. I guess a good thing is that CARICOM heads continue to meet and other territories, Curacao and Bermuda, are still interested in being part of the process.

Elizabeth Morgan is a specialist in international trade policy and international politics. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com