Agriculture Minister Lisa Jawahir has highlighted her selection for the inaugural African Academy for Women in Political Leadership as evidence of growing international recognition for the work being done by women leaders in the Caribbean.
The inaugural cohort was launched in Kigali, Rwanda, last week, with 40 women selected from 1,400 applicants globally to represent their respective countries and regions.
Jawahir said Saint Lucia and St Kitts were selected to represent the sixth region, the diaspora.
“Saint Lucia and Saint Kitts were chosen to represent the sixth African region, which is the diaspora,” she said.
She stressed that neither she nor the other selected participants from the Caribbean applied for the programme.
“So to be called upon, and we did not apply, but they handpicked us,” Jawahir said.
According to the minister, the selection involved recognition from several international organizations, including the African Union, the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations and the African Women Leadership Network.
She said the recognition was significant because it demonstrated that the work of Caribbean women leaders was being noticed beyond the region.
“To be called upon by the African Union, the UNDP, the UN, the African Women Leadership Network, who have recognized the work that you are doing in your region, and to be recognized outside is really eye-opening,” Jawahir said.
The minister also used the occasion to question why women who receive international recognition can sometimes face doubts about their leadership abilities at home.
“To this day we don’t have the confidence that the same persons who are recognized to be able to sit at tables with chief justices and former presidents of republics that we don’t believe that they can lead,” she said.
The African Academy for Women in Political Leadership is intended to bring together women leaders from different parts of the world to strengthen their political leadership and governance capabilities.
Jawahir’s selection comes amid continuing debate in Saint Lucia over the role of women in senior political and ministerial positions. She has previously dismissed criticism surrounding the appointment of young women to major portfolios, maintaining that performance and results should be the measure of leadership rather than gender or age.