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“Take Full Advantage of Training” Ag. IIR Director Urges in DAOC Protocol & Diplomacy Module

For Release Upon Receipt - October 14, 2019

St. Augustine


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In her feature address today at the Opening Ceremony of the Diplomatic Academy of the Caribbean’s (DAOC) four-day module entitled Protocol and Diplomacy: A Guide for the Modern Professional, the Acting Director of The University of the West Indies (The UWI) Institute of International Relations (IIR), Dr. Annita Montoute, underscored that, five-plus years since it was first offered by the Diplomatic Academy, interest in this signature training remains high. These proceedings were held at the St. Augustine Campus of The UWI, with the training module’s participants in attendance.

Launched on 6 May 2014, the DAOC is the Caribbean’s premier professional development-oriented diplomatic studies training centre. It is an integral part of The UWI St. Augustine Campus and the Campus’ IIR, which is headed by Professor Jessica Byron. 

The Diplomatic Academy aims to provide high-quality, immersive learning and short-term, hands-on practical training in modern diplomacy education, as a complement to formal training and on-the-job training in that area. The Academy has a proven track record of offering training services to government, business and civil society organizations, as well as international organizations, leading to a Certificate of Training.

“That there are more than 25 participants in this latest iteration of ‘Protocol and Diplomacy: A Guide for the Modern Professional’, a staple in the catalogue of DAOC module offerings, demonstrates the Diplomatic Academy has carved a niche and, amongst its stakeholder community, it has a well-deserved reputation that is second to none with regard to the delivery of knowledge and applied skills in this discrete area of modern diplomacy education,” said Dr. Montoute.

Dr. Montoute further contextualized the continued appeal of the module in question, citing the wide cross-section of public, private and non-profit sector stakeholders, including from academia and the military, represented in this iteration of the training: “To a far greater extent than in the past, we all are part of academic and/or practitioner contexts that are subject to ever-increasing interdependence at the local, national, regional and global levels. Such complex interactions have the potential to be a major driver of our success, but realizing this potential hinges in large measure on a solid command of key dimensions of protocol and diplomacy.”

In thanking the module’s two, long-serving facilitators, Ms. Gail Guy and Mr. Dennis Francis—both of whom are retired senior diplomats of the Foreign Service of Trinidad and Tobago—for once again delivering the training on behalf of the DAOC, Dr. Montoute highlighted that these practiced professionals have put together stellar course materials and, against this backdrop, her charge to participants was for them to “take full advantage of the training.”     

In closing, Dr. Montoute thanked IIR and DAOC secretariat staff for their professionalism in and dedication to organizing the module, which she noted forms part of the DAOC’s build-out of a demand-driven, results-oriented agenda and work programme in the context of the “big picture” of moving ahead with a roadmap for renewal.  

 
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About the DAOC

The DAOC is a first-of-its-kind, practitioner-focused diplomatic studies training centre, which continues to make a major contribution to the effective and impactful conduct of Caribbean diplomacy. Its realization stems from an exemplary partnership between The UWI St. Augustine Campus and the government of the day of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.

The DAOC has yielded substantial and complementary benefit to the IIR, which was established in 1966 by agreement between the Government of Trinidad and Tobago and the Government of Switzerland.

Integral to the DAOC’s mission is its commitment to help close human resources capacity gaps in international affairs and diplomacy in the Caribbean, by providing capacity-building and skills development training in diplomacy to up and coming diplomats and to aspiring diplomats from the Caribbean Region. This diplomatic learning and training facility also strengthens the University’s capacities for research/analysis, knowledge‐sharing, advocacy, and partnerships and dialogue on the relationship between diplomacy and the Caribbean broadly conceived, with the goal of helping to facilitate policy-relevant awareness-raising on international affairs issues of import (and that are topical) to the Region.

The Diplomatic Academy derives its character from its global outlook, real-world impact and Caribbean mindedness which, in sum, constitute The DAOC Advantage™.

For more information, please visit: https://sta.uwi.edu/daoc/

About The UWI 

For more than 70 years The University of the West Indies (The UWI) has provided service and leadership to the Caribbean region and wider world. The UWI evolved from a university college of London in Jamaica with 33 medical students in 1948 to an internationally respected, regional university with near 50,000 students across five campuses: Cave Hill in Barbados; Five Islands in Antigua and Barbuda; Mona in Jamaica, St. Augustine in Trinidad and Tobago; and an Open Campus. Times Higher Education has ranked The UWI among the top 1,258 universities in world for 2019, and the 40 best universities in its Latin America Rankings for 2018 and 2019. The UWI is the only Caribbean-based university to make the prestigious lists.

As part of its robust globalization agenda, The UWI has established partnering centres with universities in North America, Latin America, Asia, and Africa including the State University of New York (SUNY)-UWI Center for Leadership and Sustainable Development; the Canada-Caribbean Studies Institute with Brock University; the Strategic Alliance for Hemispheric Development with Universidad de los Andes (UNIANDES); The UWI-China Institute of Information Technology, the University of Lagos (UNILAG)-UWI Institute of African and Diaspora Studies and the Institute for Global African Affairs with the University of Johannesburg (UJ). The UWI offers over 800 certificate, diploma, undergraduate and postgraduate degree options in Food & Agriculture, Engineering, Humanities & Education, Law, Medical Sciences, Science & Technology, Social Sciences and Sport. As the region’s premier research academy, The UWI’s foremost objective is driving the growth and development of the regional economy. For more, visit www.uwi.edu.

(Please note that the proper name of the university is The University of the West Indies, inclusive of the “The”, hence The UWI.)

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