NASSAU, The Bahamas: Caribbean youth leaders issued a clear call for governments, regional institutions, and development partners to move youth engagement from consultation to genuine decision-making power, as the Caribbean Development Bank's (CDB) Youth FIRE Forum (YFF) concluded in Nassau, The Bahamas.
Held as the opening engagement of CDB's 56th Annual Meeting of the Board of Governors, the two-day YFF brought together young leaders, innovators, and policymakers from across the region to confront the Caribbean's most pressing development challenges.
Opening the Forum, Mr. Daniel Best, President of CDB, told participants that the region's future depends on young people having a genuine stake in shaping it. "Young people are not simply the leaders for tomorrow. You are leaders now," said President Best. He appealed to policymakers and partners in the room to bring young people to the table to shape decisions, not merely to applaud them.
The Honourable Mario Keith Bowleg, Minister of Youth and Sports, The Bahamas, echoed President Best’s call for meaningful youth participation and added, “I encourage you to sit with your peers to have healthy discourse about diversity, have challenging discussions about climate change and deepening digital skills across the region. And chart the course that catapults the Caribbean forward.”
Members of CDB’s Future Leaders Network (FLN) underscored that youth are at the forefront of progress and must now drive meaningful impact. Ms. Asha?Gaye Cowell, Outgoing Co-Chair of the FLN and member from Jamaica, explained, “We are already leading in our classrooms, in our communities, in boardrooms, in businesses, in churches, public offices, universities and movements across the region and the world.”
“We must accept the responsibility for translating youth experience to regional change to ensure that our voices are more than supplementary to development,” said Mr. Kiran Halkitis, FLN member from The Bahamas.
This call for tangible regional influence carried through to the Forum's Intergenerational Dialogue, as youth representatives described what authentic inclusion should look like in practice. Ms. Tehilla Maloney-Joseph, Outgoing Co-Chair of the FLN and member from Trinidad and Tobago, asserted that institutions should treat young people as partners in design, not just subjects of policy, and added, "We must ensure that they are co-creators, they are co-authors, they are co-developers. We must include them meaningfully and not just tokenistically."
Mr. Stephen Richards, a social entrepreneur and FLN member from Jamaica, pointed to the need for sustainable investments behind youth-led enterprises, and encouraged young Caribbean people to apply optimism in addressing the region's challenges. "At the opposite end of a problem is an opportunity," said Mr. Richards.
These exchanges reflected a YFF-wide consensus that Caribbean youth are not waiting for permission to lead. Across sessions on employment, transformation, climate resilience and justice, panellists highlighted how youth-led entrepreneurship, research, and advocacy are reshaping communities. They also insisted on eliminating barriers to financing, decent work, and decision-making spaces.
Forum discussions fed directly into the Youth FIRE Outcome Statement, developed by FLN representatives to advocate for greater youth participation in climate and disaster-resilience planning; accelerated investment in digital infrastructure and AI literacy; expanded mental health support services; and stronger mechanisms for monitoring youth-focused programmes. The Statement compels CDB and its partners to continue mainstreaming youth engagement across all investments.
The YFF also featured a Youth Innovation Hub, where six local young entrepreneurs, innovators, creatives, and changemakers showcased their ideas, prototypes, products, and solutions that can transform the Caribbean.
The Youth FIRE Forum is anchored in CDB's Youth Policy and Operational Strategy as well as the Bank’s 10-year Strategic Plan, Transforming the Caribbean for Resilience (2026–2035), which identifies youth investment as one of three operational priorities alongside institutional strengthening and climate action. The Forum also marked the formal transition between FLN Cohort 1 and the newly introduced FLN Cohort 2, which will carry the Network's advisory work forward across CDB's 19 Borrowing Member Countries.
Online audiences are invited to watch the recap of Youth Fire Forum Opening Ceremony and Intergenerational Dialogue on CDB’s YouTube Channel.
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