The aims of the meeting were to increase awareness of knowledge management as a tool for development, and advance discussions towards a practical knowledge management approach for the Caribbean subregion. It offered participating countries and institutions the opportunity to share their views on: (a) A background document prepared as the basis for deliberations by ECLAC (b) The role of indigenous knowledge in participatory approaches for sustainable development (c) Country and institutional experiences on knowledge management for development (d) The challenges and way forward towards a knowledge management approach for the Caribbean region.

Participants included experts on knowledge management from Caribbean organizations and research institutions. Given, however, the relative novelty of this subject within the subregion, information management practitioners and potential users/beneficiaries of knowledge management strategies within the aforementioned institutions were also invited. Thus, the meeting gathered an audience with heterogeneous backgrounds and expectations.