Against the backdrop of turquoise coastlines, verdant tropical rainforests and world-renowned underwater dive sites that draw hundreds of thousands of international visitors each year, Grenada’s tourism sector draws its true competitive edge not from its natural assets alone, but from the island’s 120,000 residents who serve as the core architects of its long-term sustainable development, according to the country’s Ministry of Tourism, the Creative Economy and Culture. Released as the first installment of a weekly feature series marking the national Tourism Awareness Month observed every November — this year themed “Advancing Sustainable Tourism through AI and Digital Innovation” — the analysis frames local residents as far more than service stakeholders, but as custodians of the island’s unique identity and shared prosperity. For generations, Grenadians have curated deeply authentic visitor experiences by preserving and sharing their unbroken cultural heritage: from the pulsating parades of the annual Spice Mas carnival to the intimate Maroon and String Band Festival held in the sister isle of Carriacou, handcrafted artisanal goods, generations-old spice-infused cuisine, and oral histories passed down through families. These intentional, personal exchanges replace the superficial, transactional interactions common in mass tourism destinations, forging lasting connections that let travellers engage directly with the island’s vibrant cultural soul, rather than merely observing it as external spectators. Beyond cultural stewardship, local communities lead frontline environmental conservation efforts to protect the very natural assets that make Grenada a top global travel destination. Community-led initiatives span mangrove reforestation campaigns, coral reef restoration projects, and coordinated advocacy to curb unregulated sand mining that erodes coastal ecosystems, alongside widespread promotion of low-impact, responsible tourism practices that minimize visitor harm to fragile terrestrial and marine habitats. This grassroots commitment ensures that the island’s unspoiled natural landscapes will remain intact for future generations of both locals and visitors to enjoy. The population also anchors the tourism sector’s inclusive economic model, by prioritizing patronage of homegrown, locally owned enterprises: family-run guesthouses, independent farm-to-table restaurants, community-owned tour operators, and open-air spice and craft markets that keep tourism-generated wealth circulating within Grenadian communities, rather than leaking to external multinational corporations. This distributed economic flow creates stable local jobs, nurtures grassroots innovation, and lifts household living standards across rural and urban parishes alike. As informal global hospitality ambassadors, Grenadians’ signature warmth, genuine generosity and deep pride in their home leave indelible positive impressions on visitors, driving high rates of repeat travel and word-of-mouth recommendations that form one of the destination’s most powerful marketing channels. Across every layer of tourism governance, local residents are active participants in long-term strategic planning, ensuring the sector balances three core priorities: steady economic growth, rigorous ecological protection, and equitable social well-being for all community members. The Ministry of Tourism emphasized that the long-term resilience and sustainability of Grenada’s tourism industry rests entirely on centering local voices, rather than sidelining them. The upcoming weekly feature series throughout November will dive deeper into other critical dimensions of the island’s evolving tourism ecosystem, including the integration of artificial intelligence and digital tools to further advance sustainable, inclusive growth. A standard disclaimer notes that NOW Grenada does not assume liability for the views and content submitted by external contributing parties, with a formal reporting mechanism available for users to flag inappropriate content.
标签： Grenada
格林纳达
-
Team RUBIS laptop donation to enhance CCCN caregiver training
A targeted corporate donation from regional energy and retail operator Team RUBIS is set to significantly expand the operational capacity of the Caribbean Centre for Child Neurodevelopment (CCCN) as the non-profit scales up its child wellbeing programs across Grenada. The CCCN’s core mandate centers on advancing early childhood brain health by equipping parents, classroom educators, daycare staff and other frontline caregivers with evidence-based strategies to build nurturing, supportive environments that foster holistic child growth and long-term wellbeing. The newly donated high-performance laptop will eliminate longstanding bottlenecks in the organization’s daily operations: staff will now be able to design tailored caregiver coaching interventions in less time, input program data in real time rather than relying on error-prone manual paper tracking, run more rigorous impact analyses, and closely monitor outcomes for the families they serve. During the handover event, RUBIS Accounts Executive Catoria Emma Jeremiah emphasized that the donation aligned directly with the company’s longstanding community investment priorities. “It is a genuine honor for our team to stand behind CCCN’s life-changing ongoing work,” she noted. “This device is a high-demand, practical tool that will not only streamline their existing programming but also help them extend their reach to far more households and community members across Grenada. We are particularly excited to hear about their upcoming plans to roll out neurodevelopment support initiatives to secondary school settings, and this donation will help lay the groundwork for that expansion.” Fellow RUBIS Accounts Executive Areen Lewis also lauded the CCCN team for their consistent, unwavering dedication to advancing child development outcomes across the island. “At RUBIS, we have long recognized that the most sustainable community progress comes from intentional, cross-sector partnerships,” Lewis explained. “Our team remains fully committed to backing initiatives that deliver tangible, meaningful improvements to the lives of local residents.” CCCN Grants and Funding Manager Amanda Boldeau stressed that the donation arrived at a pivotal moment, as the organization’s program roster is expanding rapidly to meet growing community demand. “This laptop will cut down our administrative burden dramatically and make every part of our workflow far more efficient,” Boldeau said. “Instead of spending hours manually transcribing handwritten records after site visits, our staff can now log and organize data on the spot. This will also let us run more detailed analysis of the information we collect, track participant outcomes far more accurately, and gain a clearer, data-backed picture of how our caregiver interventions are impacting child neurodevelopment across Grenada. We cannot overstate how grateful we are to Team RUBIS for this perfectly timed donation, which will directly help us strengthen and scale our support for children and their families nationwide.”
-
Know your general election candidates
Grenada’s Parliamentary Elections Office (PEO) has published the full, official roster of parliamentary candidates vying for seats across all 15 national constituencies, sorted alphabetically by surname to ensure transparency for registered voters ahead of the upcoming general election. The comprehensive candidate line-up spans established and emerging political parties, including the longstanding National Democratic Congress (NDC) and New National Party (NNP), alongside smaller competing groups such as the Democratic People’s Movement (DPM), Change-Hope For Grenada Carriacou-Petite Martinique (CHGCP), Grenada Renaissance Party (GRP), Grenada Social Democratic Party (GSDP), People’s National Party (PNP), and Grenada United Labour Party (GULP).
For the dual-island constituency of Carriacou and Petite Martinique, voters will choose between NDC’s Tevin Camilloh Andrews and NNP’s Norland Sebastian Cox. In the multi-candidate St Andrew South East district, contenders are NDC’s David Evlyn Andrew, DPM’s Shirley McQueen, and NNP’s Emmalin Celena Pierre. St Andrew South West features a head-to-head race between NDC’s Lennox J. Andrews and NNP’s Amanda Sherine Mary Japal, while St Andrew North East fields three candidates: NDC’s Niecal Asheen Joseph, NNP’s Kate Skeeter Lewis-Peters, and DPM’s Pamela Catherine Williams. St Andrew North West’s ballot includes NDC’s Delma Cherry-Ann Charles-Thomas, NNP’s Marcia Francis, and DPM’s Olvine Holas. The St David constituency will see a contest between NNP’s Noleen Roxanne James-Thompson and NDC’s Dickon Amiss Thomas Mitchell.
The Town of St George, one of the most closely watched urban districts, has four candidates on the ballot: CHGCP’s Carole Alexander-Jones, DPM’s Charles Peter David, NDC’s Claudette Joseph, and NNP’s Joel Troy Noel. St George North East’s diverse line-up features GRP’s Dennyka Checkley, GSDP’s Nicholas Neville M. McMillan, NNP’s Nimrod Oliver Ollivierre, and NDC’s Ron Livingston Redhead. St George North West’s candidates are NDC’s Nigel Algernon Theodore DeGale, NNP’s Adrian Marlan Joseph, and PNP’s Gayton Jonathan La Crette. St George South East’s ballot lists NNP’s David Dwight Horsford, GULP’s Akim Patrick, DPM’s Stanford Harold Simon, and NDC’s Phillip Alfred Telesford. In St George South, voters will select from NNP’s Christopher Kahrim De Allie, DPM’s Charmaine Jasmin Gibbs, GSDP’s Perry Lynton John, and NDC’s Andy Joseph Williams.
For rural constituencies, St John’s four candidates are NNP’s Alvin Martin Da Breo, DPM’s Arley Nichaul Gill, NDC’s Kerryne Zennelle Kennel James, and GULP’s Geoffrey U.L. Preudhomme. St Mark’s race is a two-person contest between NNP’s Myanna Natalie Charles and NDC’s Caris Annisha De Gannes. St Patrick East’s contenders are NDC’s Carl Michael Andall, DPM’s Dishon Theo Antonio Edwards, and NNP’s Robert Selwyn Paul Whyte. Finally, St Patrick West’s ballot includes NDC’s Joseph Andall, DPM’s Andy Calvin Best, and NNP’s Jelani Kamau Glean. Local news outlet NOW Grenada, which published the official candidate list, notes that it bears no responsibility for third-party opinions or statements shared by contributors, with a dedicated reporting channel available for users to flag inappropriate content related to election coverage. -
Someone always pays: Health Financing Primer, Part 1
A prominent Grenadian medical expert and Commonwealth Scholar, Dr. Ishma Harford, has laid bare widespread public misperceptions about the island nation’s health funding landscape in a non-partisan educational health column published via NOW Grenada. For years, most Grenadians have assumed the national government is the primary funder of local health services, but 2023 data from the WHO Global Health Expenditure Database upends that long-held assumption entirely. Official 2023 figures show government contributions make up just 45% of Grenada’s total annual health expenditure, while direct out-of-pocket payments from households for pharmacy purchases, lab tests, private doctor consultations and other immediate care costs account for a staggering 48% of all health spending, the highest rate across all Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) member nations and far above the regional 30% average. Dr. Harford argues that framing government health spending as a separate, independent pool of resources is a misleading “mirage”, as every dollar the state allocates to health programs originates directly from Grenadian households via income taxes, value-added tax on daily groceries, and import duties on consumer goods. When combined, direct out-of-pocket costs and indirect tax contributions mean local residents fund a full 93% of the country’s total health expenditure, making them far and away the single largest stakeholder in the national health system, rather than passive recipients of state-provided charity. Under this framework, Dr. Harford explains, the government’s proper role is not a benevolent health provider, but a fiduciary proxy entrusted with public tax dollars to deliver services that meet three core WHO-mandated health system benchmarks: improving population health outcomes, responding fairly to public needs, and shielding residents from crippling medical-related financial hardship. By these global standards, he notes, Grenada’s health system is currently failing on two critical fronts. First, while some policymakers claim the 48% out-of-pocket spending rate does not push large numbers of households into medical poverty, this metric ignores the thousands of low-income families who forgo necessary care entirely because they cannot afford upfront costs, a gap that leaves them technically “financially protected” on official paperwork even as their health deteriorates. Second, widespread systemic failures including persistent medication stockouts, multi-month wait times for routine appointments, and lack of transparent accountability for resource mismanagement are often incorrectly framed as limits on government generosity, rather than failures to deliver services that residents have already paid for twice, once via taxes and once at the point of care. Dr. Harford emphasizes that not all wait times are inherently unreasonable: delays allocated based on clinical need, clearly communicated to patients, and bounded by published public service standards represent a system operating responsibly within its resource limits. But unaccountable delays caused by unreported empty medication shelves or unmanaged administrative waste represent a breach of the public’s trust in the proxy they have empowered to manage their health funds. He concludes by urging Grenadian residents to demand full transparency, clear public receipts for all public health spending, and greater accountability for the stewardship of the billions of dollars in combined household and tax funds that flow through the national health system each year. NOW Grenada notes that all opinions expressed in the column belong solely to Dr. Harford, and the platform bears no responsibility for contributor-submitted content.
-
GTTA 2026 National Table Tennis Championships official results
The Grenada Table Tennis Association (GTTA) has officially published the complete final standings for its highly anticipated 2026 National Table Tennis Tournament, wrapping up a weeks-long competitive showcase that drew hundreds of local players across age groups and skill divisions. The tournament featured a full slate of contested categories, spanning team championships, men’s veteran play, open senior singles for men and women, and tiered junior singles divisions for under-13, under-15, and under-19 athletes. This year’s event was notable for the emergence of several dual-title winners, who delivered dominant, consistent performances across multiple draw formats. In the elite Senior Men’s Singles division, Shannon Doughlin outlasted a deep field of veteran competitors to claim the top prize, edging out runner-up Osborne Campbell and third-place finisher Jonnique Mark. The Senior Women’s Singles crown went to Anique Bonaparte, who capped off a remarkable tournament run that saw her secure a second championship in the Under-19 Girls’ Singles category, cementing her status as one of the island’s top emerging table tennis talents. Another young rising star, Gabrielle Doughlin, also earned dual honors, sweeping first place in both the Under-13 and Under-15 Girls’ Singles events in a display of exceptional poise for her age. On the boys’ junior circuit, titles were distributed across a cohort of promising young athletes: Kelvine Langaigne took the Under-13 Boys’ Singles top spot, Xavier Gibbs claimed the Under-15 Boys’ Singles championship, and Qwanelle Walker finished atop the standings in the Under-19 Boys’ Singles division. The competitive team event saw Spice Isle Tennis Academy (SITA) take the overall first-place title, with a roster led by captain Jason Stanislaus and featuring star players Anique Bonaparte and Jonnique Mark. Team Super Star, composed of Shaundel Straker, Qwanelle Walker and captain Cedric Marquez, earned the second-place honor, while Spinex and KIM SJC rounded out the top four team rankings. The Men’s Veteran category, reserved for seasoned players with decades of competitive experience, saw Trevor Lane take the gold medal, with GTTA Treasurer Carl Felix finishing in second place and Anthony Forsyth taking third. Official event photographs shared by GTTA capture the second-place Team Super Star lineup alongside Carl Felix, as well as the third-place Spinex team posing for a group commemorative shot following the award ceremony. The full published standings include complete top-four placements for every contested division, confirming no disputed results following a formal post-tournament review by GTTA officiating staff.
-
Grenadians to compete at NJCAA National Cross-Country Championships
Two former track standouts from St Joseph’s Convent (St George’s) in Grenada, Annie Logie and Kaiyanna Alexander, have made an immediate impact on the U.S. collegiate cross-country circuit, helping their Cloud County Community College T-Birds women’s squad lock in a podium finish and a coveted spot at the 2026 NJCAA Division I National Cross-Country Championships. The breakthrough performance unfolded on October 30 at the Ollie Isom Cross Country Course in El Dorado, Kansas, during the combined NJCAA Region 6 and Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference (KJCCC) Championships, where the pair competed over a challenging 5-kilometre layout. Fort Hays Tech Northwest claimed the regional title with a tight 59-point total, while host institution Butler Community College secured the runner-up spot with 61 points. Cloud County’s team tallied 80 points to comfortably clinch the third and final automatic qualifying slot for the national finals, edging out competing programs by a decisive margin. Alexander crossed the finish line first among the Grenadian duo, notching a 26th-place overall finish with a time of 20:27.16, while Logie followed closely in 36th position with a 21:07.59 mark. The T-Birds’ top performers were led by sophomore Faith Jepchumba, who took second overall in an impressive 17:39.61, followed by Scholastica Herman in sixth (18:42.38), Breonna Peterson in 14th (19:29.71), and Isabelle Smith in 34th. Alexander’s top-30 result rounded out Cloud County’s five official scoring runners, while Logie’s 36th-place run delivered a critical displacement score that helped the team fend off rivals for the final national qualification spot. Cloud County Head Coach Drew Mahin lauded the two Grenadian freshmen for their lightning-fast adaptation to the rigorous demands of U.S. collegiate distance racing, noting their exceptional progress in just a few short months of training. “Especially with them being so young, they’ve done extremely well,” Mahin shared. “They have adjusted well to training in just a short few months, especially Kaiyanna, who has grown in confidence and really pushes herself. This is their first experience competing in cross country in the States, and they have been great teammates who never complain.” Mahin also emphasized that the endurance base the pair has built over the cross-country season will provide a strong foundation for the upcoming indoor and outdoor track campaigns, highlighting Logie’s natural speed that will be amplified by her newfound stamina. The team now sets its sights on the NJCAA Division I National Championships, scheduled for November 14 in Huntsville, Alabama, where Logie, Alexander, and the rest of the T-Birds roster will compete against the top junior college distance running programs across the U.S. to chase a top-10 national team finish.
-
Grenada celebrates Tourism Awareness Month
Against the backdrop of the global November Tourism Awareness Month observance, Grenada is marking a landmark stretch of sustained tourism expansion that has cemented its status as one of the Caribbean’s fastest-growing high-value travel destinations. Spearheaded by the Grenada Tourism Authority (GTA) and its cross-sector partners, the island nation has logged 26 straight months of positive visitor arrival growth dating back to September 2022, a run that saw monthly arrivals first cross the 20,000 threshold in December 2023 and continue accelerating through 2026. Preliminary data for the first eight months of 2026 shows stayover visitors hit 140,602, a 9.9% uplift compared to the same January-August window in 2025. Total visitor expenditure hit EC$1.047 billion in 2025, with 2026 projections pegging that figure to rise slightly to EC$1.068 billion, while the 2025 cruise season drew nearly 370,000 passengers, marking a 17.5% year-over-year increase. This surging on-the-ground performance has been matched by a wave of prestigious international industry recognition. In 2026 alone, Grenada took home five honors at the PATWA International Travel Awards, including the top title for Caribbean Destination of the Year, followed by the Pure Grenada brand being named Brand of the Year at the October 2026 Black Travel Summit Victor Awards. The destination has also earned a spot on National Geographic’s 2027 Best of the World list, building on prior accolades from top global travel outlets including The New York Times, Condé Nast Traveller, and USA Today. For Senator the Honourable Adrian Thomas, Grenada’s Minister for Tourism, Creative Economy and Culture, the robust growth trajectory is the direct product of coordinated cross-stakeholder investment. “Grenada’s tourism performance reflects the progress that can be achieved when air access, targeted capital investment, new product development, strategic global marketing, and the contributions of our local people are advanced in lockstep,” Thomas noted. “Tourism remains one of our country’s most critical economic pillars, and our priority is to maintain this positive momentum while cultivating an industry that is globally competitive, operationally resilient, and capable of generating long-lasting shared value across Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique. The progress to date is significant, but the greatest opportunities lie in what we build from this foundation.” A rapidly expanding calendar of curated, culture-rooted events is driving higher off-peak visitation and spreading tourism economic benefits far beyond traditional coastal resort zones. The 2026 Spicemas carnival drew 11,299 arrivals between August 2 and 11, a 20% jump over 2025 and a 42% increase over 2024, spurring widespread activity across local accommodation, transportation, live entertainment, and small retail sectors. The 2026 Diaspora Homecoming program connected Grenadian expats based overseas with targeted investment pathways, professional exchange opportunities, and grassroots community engagement projects, while the newly launched Lobster, Lambie & Seafood Festival elevates Carriacou and Petite Martinique’s distinct culinary and maritime heritage as a core draw for international visitors. This November, the inaugural Grenada Flower & Garden Festival, running from November 8 to 15, will showcase the country’s world-renowned botanical legacy, building on Grenada’s unprecedented run of 19 gold medals at the UK’s prestigious RHS Chelsea Flower Show – including nine consecutive top honors – while opening new revenue streams for local crop growers, horticulturists, artisans, and rural communities. Industry leaders have also prioritized investing in the local workforce and small local operators to ensure the benefits of tourism growth are broadly distributed. More than 2,000 participants across all three islands have completed training through the Pure Grenada Excellence Champion program, upskilling small business owners and frontline hospitality staff to deliver higher quality, more authentic visitor experiences. The GTA’s newly launched Pure Experiences initiative further elevates this mission by amplifying the visibility of locally owned and operated cultural, culinary, agricultural, marine, and community-led experiences across the tri-island state. The program is designed to empower more Grenadians to generate sustainable income from the land, goods, heritage, and community assets they steward, while also protecting the unique natural and cultural resources that form the core of Grenada’s tourism appeal. “These milestones give every Grenadian clear reason to view tourism as an industry where they can build a viable, long-term future,” said Randall Dolland, Chairman of the Grenada Tourism Authority. “Our core responsibility now is to translate surging global visitor demand into broader, more inclusive participation for farmers, fisherfolk, independent artisans, small entrepreneurs, and communities across Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique. With billion-dollar annual visitor spending, rising stayover arrivals, and unprecedented global name recognition, this is an exceptional moment for local stakeholders to invest, innovate, and take part in our tourism industry’s next chapter.” The annual Tourism Awareness Month observance this year serves as a platform to celebrate the industry’s collective progress to date, while aligning stakeholders around a shared roadmap for future growth that prioritizes enhanced visitor experiences, stronger small businesses, a highly skilled workforce, and equitable economic participation – all while safeguarding the one-of-a-kind natural and cultural assets that make Grenada’s tourism product stand out on the global stage.
-
CPSO and CPSO-USBC support further suspension of Section 301 maritime fees
Two leading Caribbean private sector entities, the Caricom Private Sector Organisation (CPSO) and its affiliated CPSO-US Business Council (CPSO-USBC), have formally submitted joint public comments to the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) in support of a proposed short-term extension of temporary Section 301 maritime fee suspensions, while simultaneously advocating for permanent, binding exemptions that shield the region’s fragile seaborne trade network from crippling cost hikes. Filed under USTR’s public docket USTR-2026-0694, the submission represents the collective voice of more than 6,250 private enterprises across the 15-nation Caribbean Community (Caricom).
The original Section 301 maritime service fees, levied on Chinese-built commercial vessels, first took effect on October 14, 2025, before USTR issued a one-year blanket suspension of the charges for Caribbean short-sea shipping routes running through November 9, 2026. USTR’s current preliminary proposal would extend that suspension for an additional two months, through January 9, 2027, a timeline the CPSO acknowledges as a welcome stopgap but insufficient to deliver long-term operational clarity for regional trade stakeholders.
The core carveouts the CPSO is fighting to formalize permanently, laid out in Annex II of the 2025 USTR Notice of Action, apply the fee exemption to five categories of vessel operations that underpin nearly 100% of the Caribbean’s U.S.-bound and U.S.-origin seaborne trade: voyages under 2,000 nautical miles between a foreign port and a U.S. continental port, fully cellular container ships with maximum capacity of 4,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU) or less, non-container vessels with a deadweight tonnage of 55,000 or less, bulk carriers under 80,000 deadweight tons, and any vessel traveling empty or in ballast. The CPSO led the full regional advocacy push that secured these targeted exemptions during USTR’s 2025 rulemaking proceedings.
For the Caricom bloc, a collection of predominantly island and low-lying coastal states, these carveouts are not a discretionary trade benefit: more than 90% of all goods moving into and out of the region travel by sea, with no alternative road, rail, or pipeline infrastructure to facilitate cross-border commerce. Many smaller Caricom nations are served by as few as two or three liner shipping companies, leaving local importers, exporters, and consumers with no viable alternatives if service costs spike or carriers withdraw routes entirely. Before the 2025 exemptions were enacted, economic analysts projected the unadjusted Section 301 fees would have pushed freight rates on Caribbean trade lanes up by 50 to 60%, driving steep consumer price inflation across the region and eroding the competitive edge of U.S. agricultural, manufactured, and consumer goods in their closest regional export market.
The tangible economic and humanitarian benefits of the existing exemptions are already well-documented. Since the carveouts took effect in April 2025, no liner service serving a Caricom port has been discontinued, and no additional surcharges have been applied to any Caribbean-U.S. trade lanes. Full 2025 trade data shows two-way goods exchange between the U.S. and Caricom hit $30.1 billion, with U.S. exports alone climbing 6.6% year-over-year to $18.6 billion, delivering a $7 billion trade surplus for the United States. The exemptions have also proven critical for disaster response: in the aftermath of 2025’s devastating Hurricane Melissa, the same short-sea vessels protected under the carveouts delivered emergency food, shelter supplies, and construction materials directly from Florida to Jamaica within days of the storm making landfall, with no added fee burdens slowing relief efforts.
Dr. Patrick Antoine, CEO and Technical Director of the CPSO, emphasized the existential stakes of locking in permanent protections during the advocacy push. “These exemptions have kept supermarket shelves stocked across the Caribbean, kept U.S. products affordable and top-of-mind for 18 million Caribbean consumers, and ensured hurricane-ravaged communities do not face punitive new costs at the exact moment they need access to emergency supplies most,” Antoine stated. “Right now, our region’s entire trade ecosystem hangs on temporary, time-limited suspensions that can expire without warning, in negotiations that Caricom is not even formally party to. We are asking USTR to formalize these mutually beneficial rules permanently so that both regional and U.S. businesses can plan, invest, and trade with full certainty for years to come.”
The latest submission builds on the CPSO’s coordinated 2025 advocacy campaign, which was backed by the full Caricom Heads of Government, the Caricom Secretariat, the bloc’s ambassadorial cohort based in Washington D.C., regional shipping lines, port operators, tourism industry associations, and maritime sector stakeholders. The CPSO extended formal appreciation to USTR, the Section 301 interagency committee, and the broader Biden-Harris administration for opening the public comment window to center Caribbean trade perspectives in the rulemaking process. Full copies of the joint formal comment submission are available to interested parties upon request directly from the CPSO Secretariat.
-
GAA releases 2027 CARIFTA Qualification Standards
St. George’s, Grenada – In a landmark announcement for the island’s junior athletics community, the Grenada Athletic Association (GAA) has formally rolled out comprehensive qualification benchmarks for athletes vying for spots on Grenada’s national team at the 2027 CARIFTA Games, set to take place 27–29 March in Guyana. The newly released standards apply to all Under-17 and Under-20 age divisions across every track and field discipline, establishing clear, measurable performance targets for competitors throughout the first half of the 2026–2027 athletics season. The move arrives on the heels of a string of standout regional and international results for Grenadian junior athletes, who secured 11 medals at the 2026 CARIFTA Games, 7 at the ANOCES Championships, and 5 at the NACAC U18 & U23 Championships, cementing the country’s reputation as a rising powerhouse in Caribbean youth track and field. GAA President Johnell Mitchell emphasized that the new criteria are designed to create a transparent, structured pathway to national selection while preserving Grenada’s competitive edge at the Caribbean’s most prestigious junior athletics showcase. “This initiative is not about filling roster spots for the sake of sending a team,” Mitchell explained. “Our goal is to select athletes who have proven they can hold their own against the top junior talent across the region. These standards reinforce the value of consistent participation in sanctioned, high-quality competitions, and give every aspiring competitor clear milestones to work toward. Every athlete who earns a spot on this national team will be fully prepared to perform at an elite level and make Grenada proud on the CARIFTA stage.” The official qualification rules mandate that all eligible performances must be recorded between 1 October 2026 and 15 March 2027 exclusively at events formally recognized by the GAA. To ensure fairness and comparability, results for high-velocity sprint and jump disciplines including the 100 metres, 200 metres, long jump, triple jump, 100-metre hurdles, and 110-metre hurdles must be achieved with legal wind readings to count toward selection. With the qualification window now formally outlined, local athletes, coaches, and athletics clubs are turning their focus to the upcoming GAA 2026–2027 competition calendar as competitors launch their campaigns for national team spots. The GAA also revealed plans to launch a brand-new All-Comers Championship in June 2027, an additional event designed to expand competitive opportunities for developing athletes across the island. The full, detailed set of qualification metrics has been published for public access to support all stakeholders as they plan their training and competition schedules leading up to the 2027 Guyana CARIFTA Games.
-
4 schools advance to semifinals of 2026 Grenlec Debates
After weeks of rigorous, intellectually stimulating rounds of competitive public speaking, four standout secondary school teams have secured their spots in the semifinal stage of the highly anticipated 2026 Grenlec Debates, marking a major milestone for the annual youth public speaking initiative across Grenada. For the cohort of student competitors that have progressed past preliminary elimination rounds, each successive stage of the contest has presented unforeseen intellectual hurdles, introduced them to diverse, often counterintuitive global perspectives, and pushed them to leverage their accumulated academic knowledge, practice rapid critical thinking under pressure, and cultivate distinct, confident public speaking voices that resonate with audiences and judges alike. The upcoming semifinal round will center its motions entirely on the urgent, high-stakes theme of climate change, challenging participating students to dissect the disproportionate cascading impacts of the climate crisis on Small Island Developing States (SIDS), unpack the complex distribution of climate action responsibilities and associated financial burdens between high-income developed nations and lower-income developing economies, and outline actionable, context-specific priority frameworks for climate change mitigation and targeted carbon emission reduction tailored to the unique constraints of small island territories. As the competition edges closer to its grand final showdown, organizers from Grenlec have expressed enthusiastic anticipation to watch the remaining four teams build on the skills, insights and collaborative experiences they have gained throughout earlier rounds, as they bring nuanced, well-researched personal and community perspectives to another series of dynamic, engaging public debates. Full recordings of all 2026 Grenlec Debates rounds are currently available for public viewing via broadcast on local platforms GBN and MTV, as well as official uploads hosted on Grenlec’s public YouTube channel. Grenlec and NOW Grenada explicitly disclaim all responsibility for individual opinions, formal statements and shared media content presented by independent student contributors participating in the event, with a dedicated public reporting portal made available to flag any instances of inappropriate content misuse.