During the CCI-CBF week of activities, held in Antigua from June 18th to 22nd, the CCI Steering Committee announced the appointment of Saint Lucian John Calixte as the new CCI Coordinator. The Committee has also approved the relocation of the Secretariat from Grenada to Saint Lucia. Both will support the achievement of the CCI goals by providing coordination, communication and other services to the three major CCI constituency groups – governments, private sector and partners.
Mr. Calixte has held senior management positions in the Ministry of Economic Development, the Ministry of Finance and Planning, the Ministry of Education, Gender Relations, Innovation and Sustainable Development and was more recently the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Physical Planning, Natural Resources and Co-operatives.
His role as the CCI Coordinator will include advising on relationship-building with CCI core constituencies (governments, partners and private sector); liaising with partners on CCI initiatives and activities and facilitating the implementation of CCI activities and promote exchanges of information among participating countries. He will also facilitate developing a strategy to ensure sustained partner and stakeholder participation.
Mr. Calixte will also facilitate the finalization and distribution of the CCI outputs, other documents and information to donor partners, participating countries and participating private sector organisations. He will work with CCI founding partners The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and the Caribbean Biodiversity Fund (CBF) secretariat to improve the progress towards monitoring and reporting on achieving CCI Goal 1 in member countries.
As Coordinator, he will work in partnership with CCI partners to encourage high-level representation at strategic regional and international meetings. Communication between the CCI and participating countries is key to ensuring that everyone is informed about CCI activities.
Additionally, the role include interfacing with CCI stakeholders in all CCI participating countries to ensure that the objectives of the CCI are achieved.
