News Releases

UWI Diplomatic Academy Places Greater Focus on Climate Diplomacy

For Release Upon Receipt - March 2, 2022

St. Augustine


ST. AUGUSTINE, Trinidad and Tobago. Wednesday 2 March 2022 – Much as teaching geared toward the growing field of disaster diplomacy now has a position of prominence within the expanded curricular offerings of The University of the West Indies (The UWI) Diplomatic Academy of the Caribbean (DAOC), climate diplomacy has top billing in its professionally oriented certificate training. This is the view of DAOC Manager Dr. Nand C. Bardouille, who has called attention to the upcoming second edition of the Diplomatic Academy’s four-day long online training module entitled Caribbean Small States and the Diplomacies of Climate Change: Negotiations in Practice.

This training gets underway on March 7th, just one week after the DAOC’s successful delivery of the second edition of a companion, disaster diplomacy-focused online module. It virtually brings together over a dozen participants, comprising a learning community of working professionals from a number of state and non-state organizations. They include foreign affairs and line ministries of Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Member States, diplomatic missions, regional organizations, and private sector and civil society organizations.      

“As CARICOM Member States continue to assess the outcomes of the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties or COP26, which sought to spur action in respect of the goals of the Paris Agreement and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), they are laying the groundwork for the CARICOM region’s involvement in COP27,” said Dr. Bardouille. He noted, “Insofar as this upcoming DAOC learning experience is designed to provide practitioners with a practical and in-depth understanding of climate diplomacy in a Caribbean context, our expectation is that it will support regional efforts to strengthen relevant negotiating capacity. It is a timely module offering, which has effectively positioned the Diplomatic Academy to help meet Caribbean professionals’ growing interest in and demand for short, specialized climate diplomacy training.” 

Ms. Rueanna Haynes, an international climate law and governance specialist, is the facilitator of this second edition of the module. Ms. Haynes, who is Director of the Climate Analytics Caribbean office in Trinidad and Tobago, returns to teach this module, having led the design of the curriculum for and taught the inaugural module in 2021. In her role at Climate Analytics, a German-based non-profit organization, Ms. Haynes advises island states with regard to climate change negotiations.   

In keeping with its commitment to exposing learners to first-hand, real-world perspectives in its module offerings, the DAOC has in place a pedagogy for this climate diplomacy seminar that incorporates two case study intensive, expert-led panels, comprising of representatives from national, regional and international organizations. The title of the first panel discussion, featuring four resource persons, is ‘The Role of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in Multilateral Diplomacy’. The second panel is themed ‘The Role of SIDS in the UNFCCC’, with five resource persons on hand. The capstone activity for the training is a hands-on negotiation simulation exercise, which ties together and is directed at the application of the knowledge and skills module participants acquire in the learning that leads up to this activity.

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About the Diplomatic Academy of the Caribbean (DAOC)

 

The DAOC is the 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

The UWI has been and continues to be a pivotal force in every aspect of Caribbean development; residing at the centre of all efforts to improve the well-being of people across the region.

From a university college of London in Jamaica with 33 medical students in 1948, The UWI is today an internationally respected, global university with near 50,000 students and five campuses: Mona in Jamaica, St. Augustine in Trinidad and Tobago, Cave Hill in Barbados, Five Islands in Antigua and Barbuda and its Open Campus, and 10 global centres in partnership with universities in North America, Latin America, Asia, Africa and Europe.

The UWI offers over 800 certificate, diploma, undergraduate and postgraduate degree options in Culture, Creative and Performing Arts, Food and Agriculture, Engineering, Humanities and Education, Law, Medical Sciences, Science and Technology, Social Sciences, and Sport. As the Caribbean’s leading university, it possesses the largest pool of Caribbean intellect and expertise committed to confronting the critical issues of our region and wider world.

Ranked among the top universities in the world, by the most reputable ranking agency, Times Higher Education, The UWI is the only Caribbean-based university to make the prestigious lists. In 2020, it earned ‘Triple 1st’ rankings—topping the Caribbean; and in the top in the tables for Latin America and the Caribbean, and global Golden Age universities (between 50 and 80 years old).  The UWI is also featured among the top universities on THE’s Impact Rankings for its response to the world’s biggest concerns, outlined in the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including Good Health and Wellbeing; Gender Equality and Climate Action.

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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