News Releases

UWI Diplomatic Academy flagship module goes virtual

For Release Upon Receipt - October 12, 2020

St. Augustine


The 14th training offering of The UWI St. Augustine-based Diplomatic Academy of the Caribbean’s (DAOC) flagship module on Protocol and Diplomacy: A Guide for the Modern Professional, held between 28th September to 1st October, was delivered entirely online for the first time.

 “We are celebrating this cohort of participants, the first to benefit from our transition to online learning,” said DAOC Manager Dr. Nand C. Bardouille. Utilising the virtual space, he explained, helps the Diplomatic Academy reach a much wider market of learners from around the globe.

Over 50 per cent of the participants were from outside of Trinidad and Tobago, shattering previous overseas attendance records.

He also saw the move as necessary to protect the “health and well-being of its stakeholders” because of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has “given added impetus” for the DAOC to “harness remote means of delivery of many training modules”.

Thirty-four participants successfully completed the protocol and diplomacy module, one of the highest ever attended. They came from Anguilla, Barbados, The Bahamas, New York, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago. Professionally, they are officials, diplomats and representatives of businesses and business support organisations, along with staff based in academia, among others.    

Dr. Bardouille underscored how pleased he is with the cohort’s success in concluding the module, coming against the backdrop of the manifold setbacks that COVID-19 has visited on individuals and institutions across the Caribbean. “At a time when so many public, private and non-profit sector-based institutions in the Caribbean are under severe coronavirus-related stress, I want to especially commend those organisations that saw fit to continue to invest in their staff members’ professional development by way of a home-grown, diplomacy-centric educational partner, the DAOC,” said Dr Bardouille.

The participants join the ranks of hundreds before them who have read for this long-running module, leveraging this training to build on their professional success in a cross section of career paths. 

They lauded the virtual training, calling attention to the crucial role it could play in their professional development.

Director of the Institute of International Relations Professor Jessica Byron expressed satisfaction that in spite of the challenging times, the DAOC is pressing ahead with its mandate, contributing to the professional success of a diverse range of young and mid-career professionals. She stated that now, more than ever, a complex, broad-based and interconnected diplomatic and global affairs environment obtains. In this regard, Professor Byron called attention to the role of the DAOC’s protocol and diplomacy training in helping participants to contribute in their own way to effecting cooperative action on some of the most pressing challenges of our time, which she noted is currently taken up with the COVID-19 pandemic.  

Long-serving module facilitators Ms. Gail Guy and Mr. Dennis Francis—both of whom are retired senior diplomats of the Foreign Service of Trinidad and Tobago—once again delivered the training on behalf of the DAOC. 

                                                                                                  

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About the Diplomatic Academy of the Caribbean (DAOC)

The DAOC is Caribbean's premier professional development-oriented diplomatic studies centre. An integral part of The University of the West Indies' (UWI) Institute of International Relations (IIR), it was established in 2014. The DAOC has a primary teaching mandate in the area of diplomatic studies, offering short, highly specialized training modules in the broad field of diplomatic studies. For Caribbean professionals seeking to expand their capabilities to advance an international career, the DAOC is a trusted educational partner. Combining a world-class suite of curricular offerings, which align with topical policy and learning trends, with a programme of advocacy and partnerships regarding the relationship between diplomacy and the Caribbean, the Diplomatic Academy provides a unique setting for stakeholders to deepen diplomatic skills/knowledge and enhance policy expertise.

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”) 

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