The Com­mon­wealth Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al will step on­to the CARI­COM stage one last time this week, clos­ing out her tenure with a fi­nal push for cli­mate ac­tion, eco­nom­ic re­silience, and dig­i­tal trans­for­ma­tion.

As Caribbean lead­ers gath­er in Bar­ba­dos from 19-21 Feb­ru­ary 2025 for the 48th Reg­u­lar Meet­ing of the Con­fer­ence of Heads of Gov­ern­ment, Pa­tri­cia Scot­land KC aims to re­in­force the re­gion’s place at the cen­tre of glob­al dis­cus­sions on sus­tain­abil­i­ty and de­vel­op­ment.

Ac­cord­ing to a re­lease from the Of­fice of the Com­mon­wealth Sec­re­tari­at, Scot­land will use her fi­nal ad­dress to CARI­COM lead­ers to high­light the Com­mon­wealth’s con­tin­ued sup­port for small is­land states.

She will fo­cus on ar­ti­fi­cial in­tel­li­gence, cli­mate change, and debt man­age­ment, while al­so out­lin­ing the im­pact of the Com­mon­wealth Cli­mate Fi­nance Ac­cess Hub, which helps vul­ner­a­ble na­tions se­cure fund­ing for cli­mate-re­lat­ed chal­lenges.

“As I con­clude my tenure as Com­mon­wealth Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al, I am proud to have worked along­side CARI­COM lead­ers to ad­vance our shared val­ues of democ­ra­cy, hu­man rights, and sus­tain­able de­vel­op­ment,” Scot­land said in the re­lease. “Our col­lab­o­ra­tion has been a shin­ing ex­am­ple of what can be achieved through uni­ty and co­op­er­a­tion.”

Be­yond the for­mal ses­sions, she will meet with re­gion­al lead­ers to dis­cuss food se­cu­ri­ty, dig­i­tal re­silience, ex­ter­nal re­la­tions, and the CARI­COM Sin­gle Mar­ket and Econ­o­my. The Com­mon­wealth Sec­re­tari­at stat­ed that these dis­cus­sions will help de­fine the or­gan­i­sa­tion’s role in sup­port­ing Caribbean na­tions in the years ahead.

Scot­land will al­so pro­vide an up­date on the next Com­mon­wealth Heads of Gov­ern­ment Meet­ing (CHOGM), set for 2026 in An­tigua and Bar­bu­da. The agen­da is ex­pect­ed to fo­cus on cli­mate change, in­ter­na­tion­al trade, and the unique strug­gles of Small Is­land De­vel­op­ing States. “My dear sis­ter, the Hon. Shirley Ay­orkor Botch­wey, will be here in the Caribbean to hold her first CHOGM as Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al and will build on the progress we have made, tak­ing our col­lec­tive ef­forts to the next lev­el,” she said in the re­lease.

With 12 CARI­COM states among the Com­mon­wealth’s 56 mem­ber coun­tries, the Com­mon­wealth Sec­re­tari­at not­ed that the re­gion re­mains a key voice in shap­ing glob­al pol­i­cy. The Sec­re­tari­at reaf­firmed its com­mit­ment to pro­vid­ing pol­i­cy guid­ance and tech­ni­cal as­sis­tance to help Caribbean na­tions achieve sus­tain­able, in­clu­sive, and eq­ui­table growth.