Taiwan, the U.S. and host St. Kitts and Nevis successfully staged the first Global Cooperation and Training Framework (GCTF) workshop in the Caribbean on Nov. 19, 2021. Co-hosted by H. E. Michael Lin, Taiwan’s Ambassador to St. Kitts & Nevis, H. E. Linda Taglialatela, U.S. Ambassador to Barbados, the East Caribbean and the OECS, and Hon. Alexis Jeffers, Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Marine Resources of St. Kitts & Nevis, the event entitled “Climate-Smart Agriculture: Building Sustainability and Resilience of Agriculture” focused on climate change and food security, two issues of increasing importance in the Caribbean region.
Pre-recorded addresses were delivered by Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Jaushieh Joseph Wu, American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Sandra Oudkirk and Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association Representative Hiroyasu Izumi. Minister Wu indicated GCTF’s importance as a platform to utilise Taiwan’s strengths and expertise to address issues of global concern. Founding partners Taiwan and the United States were joined later by full partners Japan and Australia, and like-minded countries including Guatemala, the Netherlands, Sweden, the U.K. and Slovakia all co-hosted GCTF workshops in recent years. Since its launch in 2015, the GCTF has held over 40 international workshops for capacity building on such topics as public health, supply chains, humanitarian assistance and other regional issues, benefiting participants from about 100 countries. Taiwan looks forward to work with St. Kitts and Nevis and all partners worldwide to tackle shared challenges.
In his opening remarks, St. Kitts &Nevis Agriculture Minister Jeffers stressed the urgency of addressing climate change, which is a substantial threat in many aspects including agriculture and food security. He noted the value of climate-smart agriculture as a pivotal tool to improve climate resilience, ensure sustainable livelihoods, and cut greenhouse gas emissions related to food production. He also expressed his optimism about the GCTF platform in spurring more international cooperation in diverse areas.
Keynote speakers in this workshop were Jeremy Adamson, Policy Advisor in the Foreign Agricultural Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Dr. Chaney St. Martin and Kelly Witkowski, Specialists of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), Randy Elliott, Director of Agriculture Department, Nevis Island Administration, and Tsung-hsien Wu, Technician from the Taiwan Technical Mission in St. Lucia. They shared Taiwan’s valuable experiences in climate-smart agriculture projects working with Caribbean allies, and offered insight in policy making, climate risk management and innovative solutions so as to strengthen agriculture’s resilience and sustainability facing climate change.
91 officials, scholars or experts from Taiwan, the U.S. and 12 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean, including St. Kitts and Nevis, participated in the workshop.
