Some of the Caribbean’s most pressing challenges, from economic instability and climate shock to the integration of artificial intelligence, will be tackled at the Caribbean World of Work Forum 2025.
Through spirited dialogue and hands-on collaboration, this year’s Forum, hosted by the Cipriani College of Labour and Co-operative Studies (CCLCS) from July 22nd to 25th, has become a vibrant hub for reimagining the region’s future of work.
According to Managing Director of the Lloyd Best Institute of the West Indies, Sunity Maharaj, long before formal systems of power were acknowledged, Caribbean people, especially the marginalised, survived and thrived through solidarity and social care. She noted that the strength of the region does not lie in policy but in the power of people working together.
“It was a gayap system, it was the sou sou, it was a panchayat, it was a council of elders, it was community care and love and responsibility. These people were not in power. They didn’t have the right to vote until 1946, yet for centuries they survived the worst tortures possible to bring their children and their descendants into the modern era.”
Minister of Labour, Social Security and Third Sector of Barbados, Colin Jordan, highlighted that social enterprises support organisations that focus on developing people. He said these organisations are able to reach places the government cannot and can forge relationships with grassroots organisations.
“There is no amount of money that you can pay to a public officer to generate in that person, as well-meaning as they are, the passion that is found in persons who are involved in leading civil society organisations.”
The Forum also tackled the rise of artificial intelligence, weighing its potential to transform sectors like education while raising concerns about its impact on human connection.
Economist David Abdulah emphasised that AI, if guided by community values, could enhance learning without compromising the people-first principles of the Social and Solidarity Economy.
“Our young people will learn not from somebody standing up in a classroom speaking for 45 minutes or whatever it is or from by reading books which young people don’t necessarily do, but through a creative process of audiovisual material and that kind of thing, and AI can assist the production of that audiovisual material very, very easily and quickly.”
The Forum continues at the Cipriani College Valsayn campus, where themes such as Resilience, Transformation and Modernisation, and Sustainability will be discussed.