标签： Antigua and Barbuda

As Antigua and Barbuda prepares to welcome global leaders for the upcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) kicking off on November 1, the national government has ramped up its infrastructure upgrade efforts by rolling out an accelerated road repair programme. Public works teams across the twin-island nation will shift to a six-day working week, with mandatory additional overtime, to meet the tight one-month deadline for finishing priority infrastructure projects ahead of the high-profile international gathering.

Maurice Merchant, Director General of Communications, announced the details of the intensified initiative during a public briefing on Thursday, confirming that priority will be given to roadway networks surrounding key meeting venues and along the primary travel routes expected to be used by visiting international delegations. Last Wednesday, a full senior leadership delegation from the Ministry of Works, including Director of Works Collis King, Junior Works Minister Senator Shanella Govia, Permanent Secretary Sandra Joseph, and Deputy Director Telly Cornelius, presented the full scope of required work to the national Cabinet to secure approval for additional resources.

Following the presentation, Cabinet signed off on requests to immediately source extra construction equipment and stockpile all necessary raw construction materials, clearing the way for work to accelerate across all priority zones. Addressing pre-existing disruptions to road projects that were stalled due to critical material shortages, Merchant noted that the new supply security framework will allow the ministry to restart paused work in affected communities.

Collis King, Director of Works, confirmed that the adjusted six-day work schedule with extended overtime hours will apply to all field crews to keep the programme on track. The first phase of upgrades is laser-focused on roads close to core meeting venues and the primary visitor routes, per Merchant. Once these high-priority works are completed, the programme will expand island-wide, reaching communities that have long struggled with severe roadway degradation.

Unlike full-scale roadway reconstruction projects, this accelerated initiative focuses on high-impact, quick-turnaround improvements including resurfacing, milling, edge cutting, and patching to deliver safe, smooth travel routes before the summit. Work has already launched along the Hodges Bay-Sunsail corridor leading to Anchorage, with similar upgrades underway across other priority routes. Active construction is also continuing in the popular English Harbour and Dockyard region.

In the capital city of St. John’s, drainage upgrades near the Performing Arts Centre are already 80 percent complete. Once drainage work is finalized, crews will immediately move forward with resurfacing works on High Street, one of the capital’s busiest central thoroughfares.

To back the expanded programme, the national government has allocated an additional EC$20 million to the Ministry of Works. Merchant confirmed that this funding is drawn from an EC$87 million financing package recently negotiated with a consortium of local commercial banks.

Notably, the government emphasizes that this intensified infrastructure push is not a short-term fix solely for the CHOGM event. Cabinet has outlined long-term plans to retain the newly acquired equipment, roll out enhanced operational planning, provide specialized staff training, and strengthen management frameworks to boost the Ministry of Works’ ongoing capacity to deliver road projects across the country for years to come.

As Antigua and Barbuda ramps up comprehensive preparations for the 2026 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), the island nation’s defense branch has issued a mandatory call for all current and aspiring reserve personnel to attend a key operational briefing.

Scheduled to take place at Camp Blizzard on October 10, 2026, starting at 4:00 p.m., the closed briefing will center exclusively on defense-related duties, operational activities, and official commitments tied to the high-profile international summit, according to an official public notice released by the Antigua and Barbuda Defence Force (ABDF).

The mandate makes attendance non-negotiable for all active reservists, while ABDF officials have also extended a formal request that all individuals interested in joining the reserve corps participate in the session. The official notice urges all required attendees to adjust their personal and professional schedules well in advance to ensure prompt arrival and full presence at the briefing.

This call for reservists comes amid a broader national push to finalize security and logistics arrangements for CHOGM, which is set to convene in Antigua and Barbuda from November 1 to November 4, 2026. The Antigua and Barbuda government has confirmed that the country’s preparation framework relies on a tightly coordinated cross-agency approach, bringing together the ABDF, national police force, multiple domestic security and border management agencies. Regional and international partners are also providing additional support to ensure the summit runs smoothly and safely for all attending heads of government and delegations.

The government of Antigua and Barbuda has tapped into decades of institutional experience by naming former Director of Works Alden Crump as a special consultant to the Ministry of Works, a move designed to address growing demands on the country’s expanding infrastructure and road development program. The announcement of the appointment was made by Director General of Communications Maurice Merchant during a post-Cabinet press briefing held on Thursday.

Cabinet’s decision to bring Crump on board stems from a recognized need to supplement the technical and managerial capabilities of the current Director of Works, equipping the ministry to deliver on its fast-growing pipeline of public projects. “After careful discussion, Cabinet has approved the engagement of Alden Crump, the former Director of Works, as a consultant to the Ministry of Works, reporting directly to the sitting Director,” Merchant confirmed during the briefing.

Though Crump had been preparing to enter retirement, Cabinet has tapped his decades of on-the-ground expertise to strengthen core operations within the ministry. His specific mandate will center on boosting productivity, streamlining management processes, and resolving longstanding bottlenecks that have slowed project delivery as the infrastructure program scales up.

The appointment coincides with a major acceleration of infrastructure works across Antigua and Barbuda, covering road upgrades, drainage system improvements, and a range of other public works projects. A key priority for the current program is completing all critical upgrades ahead of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, scheduled to take place in the country this November.

Cabinet also received an update on the ministry’s recent operational performance, with officials noting that strengthened oversight of projects and procurement contracts has already generated cost savings across multiple project areas. Even with these early gains, government leaders acknowledge that continuous operational improvement will be critical as the scope and scale of the national infrastructure program continues to grow in the coming months.

The 14 member states of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) have made significant progress in enshrining women’s economic rights in national legislation, but critical gaps remain in building the institutional and service infrastructure needed to turn these legal protections into tangible daily benefits for working women, according to the World Bank’s latest *Women, Business and the Law 2026* report. The report, which draws on data collected as of October 1, 2025, evaluates economies through two complementary 100-point scoring frameworks to paint a complete picture of gender equity in economic participation. The first score measures progress on 40 core legal protections for women’s economic inclusion, ranging from equal pay for work of equal value to equal property rights. The report finds that 10 of the 14 CARICOM members have already codified at least 60% of these targeted protections. Leading the regional ranking, Grenada and Guyana both posted a score of 72.7, edging just above the 72.2 average for the broader Latin America and Caribbean region. Yet when it comes to the second, equally important metric measuring the enabling systems that bring these laws to life, the entire region falls short. This second score assesses 40 on-the-ground implementation measures, including accessible affordable childcare infrastructure, dedicated anti-discrimination bodies to investigate workplace gender bias, and targeted support for women entrepreneurs. In a stark finding, the report notes that every single CARICOM member state scored lower on implementation than it did on legal protections. Eleven of the 14 nations have put in place fewer than 40% of the required implementation measures. Only Belize, Trinidad and Tobago, and Jamaica exceeded the Latin American and Caribbean regional average implementation score of 46.1. The report’s analysis highlights a key structural challenge holding back progress: while legislative reforms can be adopted relatively quickly through parliamentary processes, building and sustaining the supporting systems requires long-term, consistent investment in public budgets, trained staffing, and robust data collection—resources that many small island developing states that make up CARICOM struggle to secure at scale. Until these gaps in institutional and service infrastructure are addressed, the report warns, the bulk of the unpaid burden of enabling women’s continued participation in the workforce will continue to fall disproportionately on individual families and private employers, limiting the broader economic gains that greater gender equity can deliver. Women’s labor force participation and entrepreneurship are widely recognized as core drivers of sustainable economic growth across the Caribbean, making the gap between legal progress and implementation a pressing issue for regional long-term development prospects.

As the Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda rushes to complete critical infrastructure upgrades ahead of the upcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) scheduled for November, the national government has greenlit an additional EC$20 million injection to accelerate ongoing roadworks across the country. This new funding round comes as the country’s Ministry of Works ramps up its infrastructure delivery timeline to meet the upcoming high-profile international event deadline.

Speaking publicly on Thursday, Maurice Merchant, the country’s Director General of Communications, confirmed that the Cabinet of Antigua and Barbuda has already been notified that the additional financing will be made available in the near term. Merchant later clarified that the EC$20 million is drawn from an larger $87 million financing package recently negotiated with a consortium of domestic commercial banks operating in the twin-island nation.

The extra capital is being deployed to support ongoing road improvement activities, including resurfacing, milling, joint cutting, and patching work on the country’s highest-priority road corridors. Given the tight timeline ahead of the Commonwealth summit, Ministry of Works officials informed the Cabinet that project teams are prioritizing road segments based on their current structural condition, rather than pursuing full reconstruction of every roadway across the islands. This targeted approach is designed to deliver the maximum visible improvement in road quality before delegates begin arriving for the major international gathering.

Active construction work is already underway along the corridor stretching from the Hodges Bay-Sunsail district toward Anchorage, with multiple other priority routes already undergoing milling and patching interventions. Ongoing upgrades are also progressing in the English Harbour and Nelson’s Dockyard area, while road repaving and drainage system improvements are being carried out across the capital city of St. John’s.

In addition to the new infrastructure funding, Merchant confirmed that the Cabinet has also approved additional budget allocations for new construction equipment and raw materials to speed up the entire programme. To meet the tight deadline, work crews will operate six days per week, with scheduled overtime shifts to keep projects on track. Priority is being given to roads surrounding key CHOGM meeting venues and primary routes that will be used by visiting foreign delegations during the summit.

Once all priority upgrades for the November Commonwealth meeting are finalized, the broader national road improvement programme will be scaled out to additional communities across both Antigua and Barbuda, bringing long-overdue infrastructure upgrades to local residents across the country.

Antigua and Barbuda’s national Cabinet has given formal approval to a full-time government employment scheme for 10 young people from the Nyabinghi Theocracy Community based at Creekside, following in-depth negotiations with the community’s High Priest Ambassador Bongo Sela, Director General of Communications Maurice Merchant confirmed during a post-Cabinet press briefing this Thursday.

Discussions around the initiative grew out of the community’s existing work in the agricultural sector, where members already grow sweet potatoes and a range of other staple food crops. Community leaders told Cabinet that the group is eager to scale up its food production output, while creating opportunities for its younger generation to build hands-on skills in sustainable farming, irrigation management and other agricultural trades. In response, Cabinet agreed to formalize the employment positions, with clear oversight and accountability frameworks in place to guide the programme’s implementation.

Addressing questions from reporters at the briefing, Merchant pushed back against early speculation that the roles would be short-term temporary positions, emphasizing that the 10 young community members will enter permanent full-time public employment. “They’re from the community and employed by government to work within the community,” Merchant explained, confirming that the programme’s focus remains exclusively on legal food crop production, with no provision for marijuana cultivation under the government-funded initiative.

While Merchant acknowledged that some Rastafarian communities across the country hold official licenses for marijuana cultivation as part of their cultural practices, he stressed that this new employment project is strictly focused on boosting national food output. “This program does not include the cultivation of marijuana,” he reiterated. The government’s core goals for the initiative are twofold: to strengthen Antigua and Barbuda’s overall national food security, and to generate sustainable community income that can support further development projects for the Nyabinghi Theocracy Community. Unlike many public sector investment projects, the government does not anticipate receiving direct financial returns from this agricultural pilot.

As talks progressed, Cabinet also addressed a separate proposal to include young people from outside the Nyabinghi community who regularly associate with the group. Cabinet leaders advised the community to pause plans to integrate these external individuals into the initial phase of the programme, citing concerns about unvetted participation. An unstructured recruitment process for outsiders, Cabinet noted, could expose both the community and the agricultural initiative to unnecessary risk, including potential reputational damage if outside actors used the community as a base for illegal or unethical activity.

Instead, Cabinet recommended that the first phase of the programme focus exclusively on youth already embedded within the Nyabinghi community, where the group’s established leadership can provide consistent, effective supervision and accountability. Merchant added that external candidates could be considered for future expansion of the scheme, provided they demonstrate a genuine, long-term commitment to engaging in productive, structured agricultural work.

Looking ahead, Cabinet signaled that similar agricultural employment proposals from other Rastafarian communities across Antigua and Barbuda will be eligible for government support, as part of the nation’s broader national strategy to scale up domestic food production and reduce reliance on imported food staples.