| Overview : On 10 October 2010, the Federation of the Netherland Antilles comprising the five Dutch Caribbean countries of Curaçao, Bonaire, Saba, St. Eustatius and Sint Maarten was dissolved. Two of the five islands, Curaçao and Sint Maarten became autonomous countries within the Kingdom of the Netherlands and now have responsibility for their overall development with only the defense, external security and immigration portfolios falling outside of their remit. Among the challenges that the new country faces is the need to articulate a national development plan that gives cognizance to the environmental, economic, social and political realities of a new SIDS country within the current global environment. Many countries in similar situations have used dialogue processes linked to development issues to prepare medium to long term strategies in a consultative participatory way. The fundamental objective in this process of organizing a Democratic Dialogue around the structuring of the national development agenda would be to reach agreement and bring about the highest possible level of consensus within the national stakeholder community and the general public as an essential pre-requisite for the building of institutional capacity. |
