Launch of the OECS Partnership Dashboard
The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Commission announced on January 8th 2026 a significant stride in its commitment to enhanced governance and accountability with the official launch of the OECS Partnership Dashboard. Developed through a crucial and productive collaboration with the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA), this innovative digital tool is designed to systematically enhance the Commission’s capacity to monitor, manage, and track the diverse range of partnerships it maintains across the entire Organisation.
The launch event highlighted the strategic importance of this new tool for the future operations of the OECS Commission. Speaking on the occasion, His Excellency Dr. Didacus Jules, Director General of the OECS reflected on the profound opportunity the Dashboard presents:
| “At its core, this platform is about clarity in a complex world. It brings together information that was once fragmented, makes partnerships visible, tracks initiatives, and allows us to see at a glance who we are working with, where, and to what end. In short, it helps us move from good intentions to measurable impact.” |
The invaluable support and technical cooperation provided by IICA were central to the successful development and deployment of the Dashboard. His Excellency Dr. Manuel Otero, the outgoing Director-General of IICA, warmly welcomed the launch, viewing it as a tangible result of the enduring cooperation between the two institutions. Dr. Otero emphasised that the Dashboard is a critical outcome that builds on the mutual goal of strengthening institutional capacities:
| “Through consultations, workshops, and rigorous discussions, we ensured that the dashboard responded to the practical and relevant needs of its users in the OECS. We approached its design with scalability in mind, envisioning it as a living tool that can evolve to support even more complex analyses and functions as the needs of the OECS grow and change…” |
The launch event also served as a formal opportunity for the OECS Commission to acknowledge and express profound gratitude to Dr. Otero for his dedicated service. In this regard, the Commission officially thanked Dr. Otero for his long-standing and unwavering support to cooperation within the wider Caribbean region and for his personal commitment to the OECS Commission as he prepares for the end of his tenure. In response, the outcoming Director General of IICA expressed his gratitude to the OECS Commission and Dr Jules for the collaboration along the years:
| “As the Outgoing Director General, I would like to take this opportunity to thank Dr. Jules and his team, together with all the OECS Ministers for their unwavering support shown over the years. We have been able to achieve more when we worked together.” |
As the curtains drew down on the ceremony, the Director of External and Institutional Relations at IICA, Ms. Beverly Best and the Head of Development Cooperation and Resource Mobilisation at the OECS Commission, Ms. Nadege Jn Baptiste both emphasised that the OECS Partnership Dashboard stands as concrete evidence of how strategic partnerships can transcend language, geographic, and institutional boundaries. Through collaboration with IICA, the OECS has strengthened its internal capacity, advanced the foundations for bilingual engagement, and demonstrated how knowledge sharing and co-creation can be leveraged to deliver more effective and inclusive development outcomes.
