UWI Diplomatic Academy strengthens Caribbean States’ Institutional Capacity in Consular Affairs

UWI Diplomatic Academy of the Caribbean is launching its four-day online training module centred around consular affairs capacity-building. The Academy aims to provide the consular agent/officer with the tools to handle issues of CARICOM. Details follow in this press release from UWI:

The University of the West Indies (The UWI) Diplomatic Academy of the Caribbean (DAOC) continues to meet the consular affairs capacity-building needs primarily of Ministries of Foreign Affairs in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), playing host to its upcoming four-day long online training module entitled Advances in Consular Affairs in the Modern Diplomatic Mission: A Caribbean Perspective. This highly acclaimed module, taking place for the second year in a row, runs from March 21st – 24th. For the most part, participants are Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials, who hail from Guyana, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago.

“The Diplomatic Academy remains committed to addressing its core constituency’s upskilling needs in the specialized area of consular affairs, helping to position a new generation of career Foreign Service Officers to hone and apply new skills and competencies regarding the effective management of consular and diplomatic functions in the twenty-first century,” said DAOC Manager, Dr. Nand C. Bardouille. He noted, “The constancy of the traditional responsibilities of Consulates is there for all to see, but new challenges arising in our interconnected world give renewed impetus to revisit responsibilities and approaches necessary to achieve the goals of the consular function. In an era of ever-increasing complexity with regard to policy issues of import to CARICOM states—from migration, to human trafficking and the wide-ranging impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the region, among others—it behoves the consular officer/agent to keep abreast of the state of the art and best practice in the profession; hence this module offering.”

Amid new and emerging trends in the twenty-first century, this consular affairs module contributes to a better understanding of the assistance function, the changing mercantile function, consular governance, relationships with the Diaspora and locating consular affairs within the diplomatic function from a Caribbean point of view. This module also focuses on the impact of crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic on consular affairs generally and specifically, within the Caribbean context.

Ms. Gail P. Guy, a retired diplomat and protocol consultant, is the lead facilitator of this second edition of the module. Dr. Natalie Dietrich Jones—Research Fellow at the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies at The UWI Mona, specializing in migration, governance and border geographies—is the co-facilitator. This teaching team played a lead role in the development of the curriculum for the inaugural module, having also taught that module.

The second edition of the module has two broad subject-specific dimensions, with Ms. Guy responsible for teaching the first thematic component of the training, while Dr. Dietrich Jones has responsibility for the second and final part. The teaching method of this module aligns with the first iteration, integrating into the interactive, participant-centered seminar format an expert-led roundtable on consular affairs. The panellists, whose real-world skills and experience will feature, are seasoned professionals of the diplomatic and public service. The pedagogy also incorporates virtual group activities, which afford an opportunity for learners to apply newly-acquired skills in real time and the facilitators to assess participants’ performance and learning in the module.