The “Capacity Building Within the Caribbean Forum of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (CARIFORUM) in the Areas of Competition, Public Procurement, and Customs and Trade Facilitation in support of the Implementation of the CARIFORUM-EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA)” Project provides training and capacity building for public and private sector organizations and as well as in agencies with responsibility for the different disciplines within the Region in the areas of Competition, Public Procurement, and Customs and Trade Facilitation
About the project
The “Capacity Building Within the Caribbean Forum of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (CARIFORUM) in the Areas of Competition, Public Procurement, and Customs and Trade Facilitation in support of the Implementation of the CARIFORUM-EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA)” Project provides training and capacity building for public and private sector organizations and as well as in agencies with responsibility for the different disciplines within the Region in the areas of Competition, Public Procurement, and Customs and Trade Facilitation.
Public and private sector representatives (including technical and administrative officers, managers, lawyers, economists, accountants); judiciary; representatives from regional institutions, non- government organizations (NGOs) and consumer representatives in CARIFORUM States benefited from these trainings to support the beneficial integration of the CARIFORUM States into the world economy.
Signed on 13 December 2014, the project has a duration of 30 calendar months and is being implemented through a service contract, by CARIFORUM, as the Contracting Authority, along with Equinoccio, Compañía de Comercio Exterior, S.L., the Contractor. In the implementation of the project, Equinoccio leads a consortium that comprises: The London School of Economics (LSE) Enterprise, Ltd.; the Maastricht School of Management (MSM); and SGS Netherlands B.V.
The beneficiary countries are: Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago.
Along project implementation more than seventy (70) programs have been completed with over 1700 public and private sector officials and professionals trained at different levels in the three areas covered by the project. The program included innovative train-the-trainer (ToT) courses that have further enhanced sustainability by enlarging the cohort of knowledgeable and skilled trainers in the region. Also, online post-graduate courses have been developed and incorporated into the Master in Trade Policy (MITP) of the University of the West Indies Shridath Ramphal Centre (SRC) that will make a continuing contribution to training and skills development in the region.
