BES Summit Concludes First Cycle with Concrete Agreements on Healthcare, Education and Representation
On the 10th of June the island councils of Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba gathered for the 9th BES summit in St. Maarten. This summit marks the conclusion of a full cycle, meaning all three islands have hosted and chaired the meetings.
During the well attended meeting, the island councils, of the BES Islands, spoke and worked on further development of the permanent representative in the Netherlands. A brief update was shared regarding further and future developments surrounding the agreements made in the Bilt in May of 2024 and regarding the WOLBES/FINBES.
For the first time, the BES Summit included a break out session where members were placed in a group setting, to discuss and work on development of 3 main topics. 3 groups were made consisting of a members of each island council and an island registrar. This strategy, was utilized to speed up the developments and intended goals based on past and future discussions with different stakeholders such as Committee of VWS and Council of education.
Three main topics discussed were healthcare, education and permanent representatives. Each working group identified challenges and a proposed way forward on each. For healthcare the focus was on repression but also on prevention, developments surrounding the adequacy of healthcare, the challenges each island face with the current healthcare structurewhich excludes the possibility of having additional insurance to cover specific medical needs or dental care. The discussions concluded with concrete agreements and action points. The different follow up actions will be addressed collectively on the identified topics.
Additionally the second working group focused on the education on the islands, the challenges, the recent conclusions from the Council of education and the concrete steps that are needed to strengthen the current local structures and address the challenges that are known but where actions have long been overdue. Stemming from the report the Council of education, highlights the challenges that have been known for a long time but have had no concrete actions of follow up because the discussion centered around proving the matters that the residents and island council representatives have been claiming for a long time. The action group worked on concrete proposals and actions points to address and propose structural improvement in the education structure on the islands focusing also on the differentiating local necessities of the islands.
On the topic of the Permanent representative the working group focused on consensus topics, differentiating topics and concrete action plans to implement the representation for the islands. Consensus was achieved and views were exchanged about the role, profile and logistics surrounding representation. A concrete plan of action was determined and the commitment of the islands centered around the efficient and effective implementation of this important role.