Pre-Conference Events
Global Commodities Forum
13 - 15 September 2021 - Location: FRANGIPANI AUDITORIUM
Our world is facing unprecedented challenges that transcend national boundaries. The vital signs of our planet are showing severe strain, with climate change at the forefront. At the same time, millions still lack access to electricity, water supply and good sanitation, mostly in the rural areas of the developing world, while the demand for food is projected to increase by 60 per cent as the world population approaches 10 billion by 2050. Significant transitions will be required to build a long-term sustainable future and help to overcome poverty and other social and economic inequities.
The COVID-19 crisis can seriously compromise the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals and other long-term development objectives, and clearly points to the necessity to accelerate such transitions. As a result, responding effectively to the crisis and meeting development needs will be a challenge for many Commodity Dependent Developing Countries (CDDCs).
Programme
Day 1 | Agriculture and Water |
9:00–9:15 | Opening Remarks |
9:15–10:00 | Session 1: Food security and smart agriculture: the role of technology and services |
10:00–10:30 | Q&As |
10:30–10:45 | Virtual Coffee Break |
10:45–11:30 | Session 2: Sustainable solutions to address water challenges |
11:30–12:00 | Q&As |
Day 2 | Energy transition |
9:00–9:45 | Session 3: The future of oil and gas-dependent countries in an era of energy transition |
9:45–10:15 | Q&As |
10:15–10:30 | Virtual Coffee Break |
10:30–11:15 | Session 4: Greening mining for a green energy transition |
11:15–11:45 | Q&As |
Day 3 | High-level roundtable |
9:00 –9:15 | Opening Remarks and Introductions |
9:15 –10:15 | Roundtable discussion: Strengthening Resilience in Commodity Dependent Countries |
10:15–11:00 | Q&As |
11:00–11:15 | Closing Remarks |
Session 1: Food security and smart agriculture: the role of technology and services
Arnaud Petit
Arnaud Petit was appointed Executive Director of the International Grains Council (IGC) in February 2018. IGC is an intergovernmental organisation based in London, offering independent analysis on grains, oilseeds and rice markets to its member governments to promote international trade in grains. It also provides information to non-government subscribers.
From 2005-2017 Mr. Petit worked at the European Farmers and agri-cooperatives Union (Copa-Cogeca), as Director for Commodities and Trade. He was also a Member of the Executive Committee of the European Technology Platform “Plants for the future” (2009-2017) and a Member of the Experts Group on EU-US trade negotiations at the European Commission (2014-2017). From 2000 -2005 he served as Policy Advisor for European Affairs at the National Chamber for Agriculture in Paris, and Deputy Member of the European Economic and Social Committee (2000-2005).
He holds an M.A. in Agricultural Economics from the International Center for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies, Montpellier, France.
Ena Harvey
Ena Harvey currently serves as the Barbados Representative of the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) and is also IICA’s Lead Specialist in Agrotourism, providing support for the development and implementation of regional and hemispheric programmes to promote agrotourism linkages and rural tourism in the Caribbean and Latin America.
A graduate of the St. Augustine Campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI) in Tropical Agriculture, and the University of Guelph, Canada in Agricultural Engineering, and with specialized training and certification in HACCP Food Safety systems and World Class Benchmarking for SMEs, Ena Harvey has over 30 years’ experience in the Agri-Food sector. Her career spans 5 years at CARIRI as a Food Technologist providing technical assistance to agribusinesses in Trinidad & Tobago, after which she worked as a private consultant to several regional and international agencies on projects covering trade and agro-industrial development, export competitiveness, food safety, food security, and agro-tourism linkages. Her work has taken her to over 20 Caribbean countries, as well as Latin America, Mauritius, Morocco, and the South Pacific.
Ena possesses a wealth of knowledge and is passionate about the food culture and heritage of the Caribbean. She has delivered several presentations and training sessions on agrotourism at regional and international conferences, and was instrumental in the development of a Food Tourism Strategy for the Caribbean and the launch of a Chefs for Development Platform for SIDS.
KEELEY HOLDER
Keeley Holder was appointed Chief Agriculture Officer in Barbados’ Ministry of Agriculture in February of 2021. Ms. Holder, holds a B.Sc. in Biology and Computer Science from The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Crop Production and Water Management from Galillee Institute, Israel. She is the first female and youngest-ever Chief Agricultural Officer. On being appointed to her post, she stated that she is “… pleased to be in a position to lead agriculture into a new future. We can only grow from strength to strength, working in partnership and unity as we fight COVID-19, and ensure food and nutrition security for all.”
Ms. Holder has a wide background in agriculture including experience in both the private and public sectors. She is a former Chief Executive Officer of HydroGrow Farm and Go Bananas Inc., served as a member of the National Agricultural Advisory Commission of Barbados and has also held the position of Vice-President of the National Union of Farmers, from 2012 to 2018. Additionally, she served as 1st Vice-President of the Barbados Agricultural Society and President of the Barbados Fruit and Vegetable Growers. Her Caribbean regional experience includes working as a consultant with the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) for the Caribbean region between 2015 and 2018.
Session 2: Sustainable solutions to address water challenges
Dr Adrian Cashman
Dr Adrian Cashman has over 40 years of experience in the water sector. He has been working as an international consultant based in Barbados on projects across the Caribbean including: updating of Jamaica’s Water Sector Policy and Implementation Plan; Developing Green Climate Fund Concept Notes and Supporting Studies for Dominica, Guyana and St. Vincent and the Grenadines; support to the Barbados Water Authority; preparing and updating the Regional Strategic Action Implementation Plan for Water; working for the FAO on their Country Programme Frameworks and supporting the development of Parliamentary Fronts against Hunger and Malnutrition.
Prior to setting up his consultancy in 2018, he spent 12 years with the University of the West Indies and served as the Director of the Centre for Resource Management and Environmental Studies (CERMES). Before joining CERMES, Dr Cashman worked in the water sector in the United Kingdom and Sub-Saharan Africa. The projects he worked on included: the development of the financial analysis methodology incorporated into a Whole Life Costing approach to the management of water supply and wastewater assets; and the UK’s Coastal and River Flooding Foresight study of the cost of future flooding.
Session 3: The future of oil and gas-dependent countries in an era of energy transition
René Bautz
Chairman of the Global Gas Centre, René Bautz is also CEO of Gaznat SA, Chairman of Swiss Energy Trading (SET) and Gas&Com (Telecommunication), Board and Committee member of several companies and organizations within the gas industry: Fingaz, Swissgas, Swiss Gas Invest, Transitgas and Unigaz. He also acts at an international level in the frame of Eurogas, Green Gas Initiative.
In 2002, René Bautz joined Gaznat, starting his career in the company as Chief technical officer. He then served as Chief operating officer for two years before taking over as CEO of Gaznat.
René Bautz studied electrical engineering and holds a Master of Science degree from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL). He dedicated his entire professional career to the energy sector. René Bautz held the position of Managing director at the Société Electrique des Forces de l’Aubonne (SEFA) for 5 years. Prior to this, he served as Director of the Utility of the town of Bienne (ESB). During this period, between 1994 and 2002, he was also Board member and manager of several companies within the water and energy industries.
The first 10 years of his career were spent at the power company Electricité Neuchâteloise (ENSA) as Head of the studies and construction. René Bautz then joined Câbles Cortaillod (now Nexans Switzerland) as Head of the electric network and testing division.
Arash Duero
Arash Duero is Principal at Bingmann Pflüger International and Senior Fellow at the European Cluster for Climate, Energy and Resource Security at the Centre for Advanced Security, Strategic and Integration Studies, University of Bonn, Germany. He specializes in the political and economic dimensions of energy resources and is a Senior Fellow at the European Cluster for Climate, Energy and Resource Security at the Centre for Advanced Security, Strategic and Integration Studies, University of Bonn.
Arash is a Principal at Bingmann Pflüger International, one of Germany’s leading strategy consultancies specializing in energy, commodities and infrastructure. There, he heads its energy, commodities, and infrastructure operations and has for over a decade had the dual function of providing strategic and communications advice to both its Managing Partners as well as to a wide range of clients across multiple industries and functions. He also regularly serves as a Senior Expert at Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, is an Advisor to the Global Gas Centre, is a Member of the Economic Council Germany and is a contributor to the Atlantik Brücke’s Working Group for Natural Resources and Critical Raw Materials.
Arash studied economics at Georgia Southern University and holds an advanced degree in Political Science with a focus on Macroeconomics and International Energy Policy from the Free University in Berlin, Germany.
DR. THACKWRAY “DAX” DRIVER
Dr. Thackwray “Dax” Driver has been the Chief Executive Officer of the Energy Chamber of Trinidad and Tobago since 2003. He has pioneered numerous new initiatives and activities for the Energy Chamber, including the Safe to Work programme and the Learning Centre.
He is the Immediate Past Chair of the Caribbean Chambers Network (CARICHAM).
He was previously the Chairman of the Trinidad & Tobago Economic Development Board and has been a Board member of the Trinidad and Tobago Coalition of Services Industries, the University of Trinidad and Tobago and T&T Natural Gas Liquids Ltd. Prior to joining the Energy Chamber, he was the coordinator of Trinidad and Tobago’s Agricultural Sector Reform Programme.
He has a Ph.D. in History from the University of London.
Session 4: Greening mining for a green energy transition
Nicky Black
Nicky Black is Director, Social and Economic Development Programme at the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM), which she joined in June 2017. She is responsible for providing strategic and operational leadership to ICMM’s work in this area, including the skills for the common future, community relations, security and human rights, tax and mineral resource governance.
Nicky has over 20 years’ experience working in sustainable development. Before joining ICMM, Nicky spent seven years with the De Beers Group of Companies in London. Her last role with De Beers was as the Head of Social Performance, with responsibility for the company’s social management programme, sustainability reporting and communications, and working with the board and executive committee to set and align sustainability strategy.
Nicky holds a PhD in Strategic Management from the University of Waikato in New Zealand, a Master’s degree in Political Sociology from McGill University in Canada, and a degree in Human Sciences from the University of Oxford in the UK.
Pascal Laffont
Pascal Laffont took up his duties as Chief Legal Counsel and Secretary to the Governing Board of the International Energy Agency in June 2012. His last post was in Doha, Qatar, where he served as a policy advisor on international energy issues to the Government of Qatar and the national oil company, Qatar Petroleum. In particular, he advised on issues arising during the negotiations of international agreements, and provided legal expertise on the impact of international treaties and agreements influencing the energy sector in Qatar.
Before that, he was in the office of the Secretary General, Energy Charter, Brussels, advising particularly on issues relating to non-members of and accession to the Energy Charter. Prior to joining the office of the Secretary General, he worked on the legal aspects of international energy trade under the Energy Charter Treaty. He started his professional life in private practice in the international projects department of a London City law firm. He qualified as a lawyer in France and England and is admitted to practise law in England and Hong Kong.
Pascal Laffont has a Masters in Public International Law from the London School of Oriental and African Studies and is a Senior Executive Fellow, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.
Michael Wurmser
As Deputy CEO and Founder of Norge Mining, Michael Wurmser advises on the finances and strategic direction of the company.
An astute economist and entrepreneur, he has worked for Citibank Zurich, and has held a prestigious array of senior positions at multinational financial institutions in New York and Frankfurt.
He’s previously been mandated by various governments, finance ministries and state banks to help settle sovereign debts. Over the years, Michael has advised on structure financing for companies in the natural resources, commodities and mining sectors in Russia, the Middle East and Mongolia.
Registration and attendance
Registration and attendance are free of charge. If you are a member of the general public and would simply like to view the proceedings, you may access the virtual platform at: https://wtvglobal.6connex.eu/event/UNCTAD15-Barbados/login
If you are an official delegate or speaker accredited by your government or organization, registration is mandatory through UNCTAD website https://indico.un.org/event/1000151/registrations/
We recommend each participant to log in to the event 20 minutes in advance to verify the quality and stability of their connection.
Youth Forum
16 - 18 September 2021
This Forum allows young people to be part of a global United Nations Dialogue as we come together to discuss our priorities as a human family and how we can build a better future for us all. Recognizing the dire impacts on trade, development and livelihoods that COVID-19 has had on us as a global community, these conversations are even more timely and relevant. Additionally, the Forum provides a platform where young people can be an active part of a decade of collective action in this global environment.
The Forum will therefore address key areas and will be focused on Innovation, Inclusion and Youth Empowerment as fundamental catalysts of our strategic developmental transformation.
Where are we now? Equality, prosperity, COVID-19 and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley
The Honourable Mia Amor Mottley, Q.C., M.P.
Prime Minister
Minister of Finance, Economic Affairs and Investment
Minister of National Security and the Civil Service
The Honourable Mia Amor Mottley, Q.C., M.P., became Barbados’ eighth and first female Prime Minister on May 25, 2018.
Ms. Mottley was elected to the Parliament of Barbados in September 1994 as part of the new Barbados Labour Party Government.
Prior to that, she served as one of two Opposition Senators between 1991 and 1994. One of the youngest persons ever to be assigned a ministerial portfolio, Ms. Mottley was appointed Minister of Education, Youth Affairs and Culture from 1994 to 2001.
She later served as Attorney General and Deputy Prime Minister of Barbados from 2001 to 2008 and was the first female to hold that position.
Ms. Mottley is an Attorney-at-law with a degree from the London School of Economics, specialising in advocacy. She is also a Barrister of the Bar of England and Wales.
In 2002, she became a member of the Local Privy Council. She was also admitted to the Inner Bar, becoming the youngest ever Queens Counsel in Barbados.
Ms. Jayathma Wickramanayke
Mr. Fredrik Asche-Kaada
Ms. Firhaana Bulbulia
BARBADOS, BARBADOS ASSOCIATION OF MUSLIM LADIES (FOUNDERS), 26
Firhaana Bulbulia is the founder of the Barbados Association of Muslim Ladies, a community-based organisation supporting the socio-economic and educational development of Muslim women and girls. With over 10 years’ experience in grassroots and community organising, she has served at the national, regional and international level, representing Barbados on issues related to women and child rights. Her contributions have been recognized by the Queen’s Young Leader Award and One Young World. Firhaana presently serves as a Gender and Communications Analyst, Project Coordinator of U-Report Barbados and Education Ambassador to the Shirley Chisholm Education Foundation.
Ms. Kanika Sahijwani
Ms. Krystal Hoyte
BARBADOS, MULTIMEDIA JOURNALIST, 22
Krystal Hoyte is a Multimedia Journalist at CBC News, with 5 years of experience in the industry from print news to digital media and now broadcast.
Her love for journalism is rooted in providing credible information in an era of fake news whilst providing a platform for ordinary people with extraordinary stories.
Driving a youth-inclusive economic growth
Ms. Sade Jemmott
BARBADOS, CHAIRPERSON OF THE BARBADOS NATIONAL YOUTH POLICY COORDINATING COMMITTEE, 33
Sade N. Jemmott is an attorney-at-law and business development consultant, currently working as Chairperson of the National Youth Policy Coordinating Committee. She has over 10 years of experience advising entrepreneurs and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) on various legal matters, commercial strategy and business development opportunities, including access to resources, business coaching, mentorship and the development of strategic partnerships. This also extends to supporting social protection initiatives of international agencies such as UNDP and UN Women, as well as the creation of various capacity-building online resources. Most recently, Sade was appointed by
the Government of Barbados to oversee a consultative policy development and implementation process in her capacity as Chairperson of the National Youth Policy Coordinating Committee.
Ms. Regina Cornish
Mr. Kristofferson Nunes
JAMAICA, CO-FOUNDER & CEO OF UCA LIMITED, 27
Kristofferson Nunes is the Co-Founder and CEO of UCA Limited, a multifaceted freelance platform and marketing agency. He is a 27-year-old creative entrepreneur, family man and the novelty idea alchemist, with the knack for flipping his mental compositions into invaluable powerhouses. With the span of his professional experience, he has been dubbed “The Connector of People and Services”.
His company, UCA Limited, a multifaceted freelance platform & marketing agency that not only has provided economic opportunities for tertiary students but also hosts the full business catalogue of head-hunting, recruitment, resume revamping, virtual casting and talent management services since its conception in 2017.
He has further developed and crafted his unique skill set into other notary businesses, most recently being Kristofferson Nunes & Co and Lavender Calf LLC, the baby-centric family brand.
With years of acquired knowledge and talent, Kristofferson has made partnerships spanning across a plethora of fields; artificial intelligence, career consultancy, education, finance, interview preparation and coaching, job development & readiness marketing, manufacturing, just to name a few.
In addition, he is a public speaker and mentor, who has received commendations and awards, including the Creative Business Cup and the Prime Minister’s Youth Award for Excellence.
Accelerating digital transformation
Mr. Trevor Chung
JAMAICA, HEAD OF DIGITAL AND UX, 33
Product guy and former engineer with 11 years experience across startups, scale-ups, and companies at scale.
Mr. Daniele Guadagnolo
Ms. Janique-ka John
BELGIUM, SOFTWARE ENGINEER, 30
Janique-ka John is a Software Engineer currently working in Brussels, Belgium, and the Founder of the Women in Tech Caribbean Community. She was born and raised in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, where she first fell in love with computers and computing. During her Bachelor’s degree at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill she discovered her love for programming and went on to pursue a Master’s Degree in Applied Computer Science. Through projects like caricovidmap, and experimenting with a Twitter bot that tweets out Vincentian news, Janique-ka has proven that she is enthusiastic about development, but in a context of solving Caribbean problems.
Emerging opportunities within the GIG economy
Mr. Brian Wong
Ms. Francesca Chia
Mr. Daniel Fadelle
CANADA, CO-FOUNDER OF CHECKWI, 32
Daniel Fadelle is the Co-Founder of CheckWI.com, and a Merchant Success Manager at Shopify. A Dominican national born in Toronto, Canada who holds a Bachelor of Social Science from the University of Ottawa, Graduate Certification in Project Management from Humber College and studied eCommerce & Online Business Management at the University of Toronto. Prior to his current positions, Daniel spent over four years in South Korea as a teacher, program coordinator, traveller and event planner. He is passionate about entrepreneurship, technology and education.
Ms. Shantal Martin
BARBADOS, SOPRANO & BEAUTY INFLUENCER,
Shantal Martin is a Barbados born Soprano and Beauty Influencer. She has trained at the Manhattan School of Music, where she received her Bachelors (2017) and Masters (2019) in Opera Performance. She has also graced the stage in many leading roles at this institution, ranging from Musical Theatre, Opera Scenes and full Operatic productions. She has been heralded by critics as having a clear, direct, bell-like tone and effortlessly conveys the emotions of her characters, never once sacrificing her vocal prowess. Shantal has worked under the baton of many well known and revered conductors and directors.
Shantal’s online influencer career has also boomed, amassing over 37,000 followers across the platforms Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, Twitter, TikTok and her Blog. During 2020, a difficult time for artists especially, Shantal honed her craft and succeeded in creating stimulating as well as inspiring content that enamoured her followers and caught the eye of many prolific brands.
Shantal’s most recent performance was as the lead Sabrina in Braata Productions “Welcome To America” slated to be shown off off broadway. Though live performances were halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the production took place online and was live streamed for one night to an audience of over 2,000. Shantal has also performed with the Boston Pops orchestra, New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center and 1688 Collective in Barbados.
Her most prestigious award comes from a past Prime Minister of Barbados, Freundel Stewart in 2013 and she has received Gold and Silver medals at the National Independence Festival of Creative Arts in Barbados, awarded for excellence in singing as well as dance performances.
Shantal uses her expertise and world class training in the following ways: as a choir director, private voice teacher, a movement coach for singers looking to become more comfortable on stage and one-on-one makeup courses, teaching techniques for the perfect audition and show makeup. Outside of her musical endeavours she is also a creative director, social media strategist, photographer and signed model.
Mr. Thutukani Ndlovu
Thuthukani Ndlovu is an Assistant Coordinator at Vrystaat Arts Festival and the Founder and Creative Director of The Radioactive blog. More popularly known as TK – is an author, poet, XR (Extended Reality) enthusiast, digital artist and Art curator learning Video and Film production in Bloemfontein, South Africa. He works for the Vrystaat Literature Festival as an assistant coordinator, while also being a project manager for the Pan African Telematic Art Project – PATAP (an initiative of the Vrystaat Arts Festival). He’s the founder and creative director of The Radioactive Blog (www.theradiaoctiveblog.com), an online creative hub that aims to drive innovation and creativity through artistic expression, capacity development and technology. In terms of sharing his work, his performance journey spans across Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Zambia, Malawi and South Africa, and in 2020 he published his debut poetry collection “My Poetic Collage” (Which is the first South African published poetry collection that features Augmented Reality). Most of his poetry and digital art is centred around social activism, with the objective of trying to develop communities through creative expression. On this note, he also advocates for exploring creative ways to express poetry and digital art through experimenting with technologies like Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality.
To date, he has worked with Creative Digital Arts Festival – under the banner of the Makhanda National Arts Festival, Fakugesi African Digital Innovation Festival, Harare Litfest, Brighton Digital Festival (in partnership with Urban Flo), Free State Digital Art fest and Tumaini Festival (A festival at the Dzaleka Refugee camp in Malawi). Thuthukani is also part of The Festival Academy Alumni – after being selected to participate in their Atelier for Young Festival Managers in Johannesburg and Gothenburg in 2018. If he’s not blogging, working, reading a book or having a coffee date.
Investing in youth businesses: Forging pathways toward a new-age economy
Ms. George-Ann Ryan
ANTIGUA, CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER, RYAN GROUP ANTIGUA, 25
George-Ann Ryan is currently the Chief Operating Officer at Ryan Group of Companies, working toward building and modernizing one of Antigua’s largest indigenously owned retail and development empires. She is an economist and entrepreneur with a focus on economic and enterprise development, and building better business practices.
Prior to this role, she has held numerous prestigious roles in non-profits, economics, and policy. She was a founding executive member and Chief Financial Officer at The Sadie Collective. She also flexed her data science and organizational management skills as a Summer Research Associate at The Hamilton Project at Brookings Institution and a Research and Administrative associate at the Economic Security Project. She also serves on the Board of Directors of The Sadie Collective — chairing the finance committee.
George-Ann has appeared in BBC World Service’s World News Have Your Say, the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation Insights Magazine, and the Mathematica On the Evidence Podcast. She has also written for publications such as the Antigua Observer, Tremr and The Financial
Diet. She is an alumna of both Pace University, NYC and Columbia University | SIPA, where she was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics, magna cum laude and a Masters of International Affairs (MIA) with a concentration in Economic and Political Development and specialization in Data Analytics and Quantitative Analysis, respectively.
Mr. Carlton Cummins
Mr. Vansh Madaan
Climate resilience: Clearing the smog on those most affected
Ms. Daniela Perozo Coste
Mr. Steve Whittaker
INSTRUCTOR/ CONSULTANT, 37, SAINT KITTS AND NEVIS
Steve Whittaker is a STEM Instructor at Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College in Saint Kitts and Nevis. Kittitian; Analyst; Consultant; Environmental Health and Climate Change Researcher; Epidemiologist; Statistician; Educator; occasionally published writer; Sometimes graphic design artist; Chronically likes to combine STEM academic principles with artistic pursuits, e.g., prose, poetry, photos, essays, and think-pieces;. 3x Ivy League Survivor; eternal consumer and curator of Caribbean culture; Literature lover and people-watcher.
Ms. Shanna Challenger
Offshore Islands Conservation Programme Coordinator, 26, Antigua and Barbuda
Shanna Challenger is the Offshore Islands Conservation Programme Coordinator for the Environmental
Awareness Group in Antigua. She is the former coordinator of the Redonda Restoration Programme, where she successfully led the team restoring the Caribbean’s top priority island for conservation through invasive species removal. With the Environmental Awareness Group, she has worked with the conservation of the critically endangered Antiguan Racer Snake, and regularly conducts terrestrial and marine wildlife monitoring surveys. The results of her work have been documented in popular media outlets such as BBC, the Guardian and National Geographic.
She was recognized in 2017 by Caribbean Beat as one of the Top 25 Outstanding Caribbean Achievers Under 25. In 2019, she was awarded the prestigious Chevening scholarship and has a Masters of Science in Conservation Biology from the University of Kent with the award-winning Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology.
She is an avid bird-watcher and diver, who is of the firm belief that nature is not just a place to visit – it is home. She also believes that there is hope for the future, and the more people that are inspired to redefine their relationship with nature, and take action, the better!
Surviving to thriving: prioritizing mental health
Ms. Jayathma Wickramanayke
Ms. Hayatun Nafysa
Mr. David Johnson
Founder of Let’s Unpack It, 22, BARBADOS
David Johnson is the Founder of a mental health advocacy group called “Let’s Unpack It”, with a vision to create a safe space for young people to discuss and learn about Mental Health and Wellness, and inspire the development of National Mental Health Policy. A twenty-two-year-old medical student and mental health advocate whose company has amassed some 1000+ followers since the organization’s inception. The company’s executive team has grown to nine members, drawn from seven small island states. As an advocate, David has been provide with several opportunities to promote Mental Wellness as an important facet of human development, youth empowerment and holistic health.
Ms. Rukaiyah Abdullah
Ms. Tember Cadette
OECS SDM / OYW Ambassador, Founder Do Something Different, 23, SAINT LUCIA
Tember Cadette holds the position of a Chairman and Founder of Do Something Different, an entirely youth-driven, non-profit organization that seeks to assist and empower underprivileged youth in Saint Lucia. She is a twenty-three-year-old philanthropist and advocate, born and raised in Saint Lucia.
She attended the St. Joseph’s Convent Secondary School and the Sir Arthur Lewis Community College where she graduated with an Associate Degree in General Studies. She is currently reading for her Bachelor’s Degree in Digital Business at the University of Westminster in the United Kingdom. As her most recent achievement, in 2020 she was awarded the Saint Lucia Medal of Honour Silver for eminent service rendered in the field of youth development and voluntary service. She also received nominations for Outstanding Youth Fellow and Youth of the Year at the 2020 Saint Lucia National Youth Awards. Tember additionally also serves as a Sustainable Development Movement Ambassador for the Organization of the Eastern Caribbean States, and a One Young World Ambassador representing Saint Lucia.
Aside from her active philanthropy, Tember is also a content creator and avid reader who aspires to become a Digital Brand Strategist in the near future. As a Digital Brand Strategist, she hopes to assist young entrepreneurs in the Caribbean in taking their brands online successfully and sustainably.
Registration and attendance
Registration and attendance are free of charge. If you are a member of the general public and would simply like to view the proceedings, you may access the virtual platform at: https://wtvglobal.6connex.eu/event/UNCTAD15-Barbados/login
If you are an official delegate or speaker accredited by your government or organization, registration is mandatory through UNCTAD website https://indico.un.org/event/1000151/registrations/
We recommend each participant to log in to the event 20 minutes in advance to verify the quality and stability of their connection.
Civil Society Forum
22 - 24 September 2021
An important aspect of UNCTAD processes is the participation of civil society. The involvement of civil society in economic and social development policies, including trade policy, involves many multi-layered considerations. In most cases, there are several factors which impact on the ability of the effectiveness of the sector’s engagement. At the regional and national level, the sector’s engagement in trade policy, cannot be divorced from the existence of structured mechanisms which provide support for capacity building and dialogue. For the participation of civil society to be meaningful, there must be a strategic investment in strategies that engage the sector throughout the process.
Opportunities for dialogue and building consensus at the global level are therefore critical for SIDS. Fora such as the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) provide a platform for relatively smaller countries to highlight important concerns and call attention to their special situation.
Programme
DAY 1: WEDNESDAY, 22 September 2021 08:30 – 12:20
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Time
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08:30-09:05
| Session 1: Welcome and Opening Remarks
• Richard Jones, Caribbean Policy Development Centre and host country civil society coordinating organization • Rebeca Grynspan, Secretary-General of UNCTAD • Honourable Mia Amor Mottley, Prime Minister of Barbados • Honourable Colin E. Jordan, Minister of Labour, Social Partnership Relations and the Third Sector of Barbados |
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09:05–09:20 | Session 2: Introductions and Workshop Overview
· Overview of the Civil Society Forum Agenda, Objectives and Protocols, Representative of International Civil Society Facilitation Group | Dr Shantal Munro-Knight | |
09:20–10:50 | Session 3: First Plenary Session on “The Crisis of Multilateralism–Whither UNCTAD Rediscovering its original mandate to confront key challenges of the Global South”
Moderator – Dr Stephen Fletcher (Proposed) Introduction of session and speakers
Open Discussion |
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10:50 –12:20 | Session 4: Parallel Break Out Sessions Sub Themes: · Pathways for socio-economic transformation and re-thinking the global division of labour; · Ecological transition and climate resilience as key pillars of sustainable development; · The feminist care economy as a transformative agenda; and · Confronting the multidimensional impact of digitization.
Plenary Group Reports
Closing, Representative of the International Civil Society Facilitation Group
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DAY 2: THURSDAY, 23rd September 2021 07:30 – 13:45 | ||
Time | Item |
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07:30 – 07:45 | Session 5: Welcome and Recap of Previous Session, Review of Protocols
· Dr Stephen Fletcher (Proposed)
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07:45 – 09:15
| Session 6: Second plenary session on “Trade, Technology & Development: Reframing the Discourse”
Moderator – : Introduction to session and speakers
Open Discussion |
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9:15 – 10:45
| Session 7: Parallel Break Out Sessions
Sub-Themes: • Trade and investment regimes to tackle commodity dependency, strengthen productive capacity (industrial policies) and advance structural economic transformation • Repurposing Special and Differential Treatment provisions in trade agreements to reflect the current reality facing small and vulnerable developing states • Exploring technology justice as a pathway to restore sovereignty and advance national policy pathways for building local economic resilience
Groups Report Back
Closing: Representative of the International Civil Society Facilitation Group
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10:45– 12:15
| Session 8: Third plenary session on “Systemic Reforms for Fiscal Space”
Moderator –Introduction to session and speakers
Discussion |
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12:15 – 13:45 | Session 9: Parallel Break Out Sessions
Sub Themes • Debt & Human Rights, debt sustainability and debt governance reforms • Tax regimes and governance reforms to tackle illicit financial flows • Official Development Assistance and South-South cooperation • Systemic reforms of global finance (capital accounts managements, global liquidity, regulation of asset-management industry, de-financialization) Groups Report Back
Closing
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DAY 3: FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 2021 9:00 – 14:00
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Time | Item |
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09:00– 11:00
| Side Event Sessions Self-Organised |
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11:00 – 14:00 | Session 13: Discussion on the Civil Society Declaration
Facilitator: Drafting Group Member
Closing: International Civil Society Facilitation Group Chair |
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Registration and attendance
Registration and attendance are free of charge. If you are a member of the general public and would simply like to view the proceedings, you may access the virtual platform at: https://wtvglobal.6connex.eu/event/UNCTAD15-Barbados/login
If you are an official delegate or speaker accredited by your government or organization, registration is mandatory through UNCTAD website https://indico.un.org/event/1000151/registrations/
We recommend each participant to log in to the event 20 minutes in advance to verify the quality and stability of their connection.
Gender and Development Forum
26 - 28 September 2021
The inclusion of the first ever Gender Forum at UNCTAD 15 demonstrates a commitment to attaining Sustainable Development Goal #5 – “Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.”
While some countries have made significant strides toward achieving this, there is still much work to be done. This was made even more apparent in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
As we seek to continue to make strides toward gender equality, it is imperative that we acknowledge the work that still needs to be done. We must discuss the problems that exist, and identify and seek to implement solutions.
Programme
Inauguration | |
19:00–20:30 | Opening Ceremony Welcome: Prof. V. Eudine Barriteau Mme. Isabelle Durant Prime Minister Mia A. Mottley Videos Cultural performances |
Day 1 | Economy |
8:30–9:45 | Panel: Imbalances in the Global Political Economy: What are the systemic macroeconomic challenges in each region? Food security and smart agriculture: the role of technology and services |
9:45–11:00 | Panel: Commodities and Gender: Agriculture, Fisheries, Dairy, and Extractive Sectors |
10:00–12:30 | UNCTAD High-Level Panel: Creating gender-responsive economies and societies: Which role can trade play? |
11:00–12:00 | Breakout Discussion Groups: 1. Finance and Investment |
12:00–13:00 | Trade and Development
Networking Session: Women, Trade and Entrepreneurship |
12:15–13:15 | Lightning Talks: Gender and Development, International Trade and UNCTAD: Future Prospects |
13:15–14:30 | Panel: Regional Trade Agreements and Gender |
14:30–15:45 | Strategy Session: Advocacy and Accountability: Who gets to be at the negotiating table? |
15:45–17:00 | High-Level Global Townhall with Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley |
Day 2 | Ecology and Sustainability |
8:30–9:30 | Keynote: Sustainability and Climate Change: Restructuring Development and Trade |
8:30–11:30 | UNCTAD Online Course Demo |
09:30–10:15 | Cross-Regional Dialogue: Feeling Blue: Feminist Perspectives on the Blue Economy |
10:15–11:45 | Panel: Indigenous Knowledge and Technologies: Rethinking sustainability, economy and ecology |
11:45–12:00 | Trade and Development Lightning Talk: Gender, Trade and Development in the Caribbean |
12:00–13:00 | Cross-Regional Dialogue: Gender and the Creative Industries Practitioners dialogue |
13:00–14:15 | Labour Panel: The Future of Work: Precarity and Gig Economy, Erosion of Unionisation, E–commerce, Artificial Intelligence |
14:15–15:15 | Roundtable: Migration and Trade: Gender, Trafficking, and Forced Labour |
15:15–16:15 | Roundtable: Underwriting Economic Exploitation: Unpaid Labour, Care Work, and Social Reproduction |
16:15–17:30 | Closing: Towards UNCTAD 16: Townhall with Secretary General Rebecca Grynspan |
27 September 2021, 4:00 – 6:30 p.m. (CEST)
28 September 2021, 4:00 pm to 6:30 pm (CEST)
Opening Ceremony
Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley
The Honourable Mia Amor Mottley, Q.C., M.P.
Prime Minister
Minister of Finance, Economic Affairs and Investment
Minister of National Security and the Civil Service
The Honourable Mia Amor Mottley, Q.C., M.P., became Barbados’ eighth and first female Prime Minister on May 25, 2018.
Ms. Mottley was elected to the Parliament of Barbados in September 1994 as part of the new Barbados Labour Party Government.
Prior to that, she served as one of two Opposition Senators between 1991 and 1994. One of the youngest persons ever to be assigned a ministerial portfolio, Ms. Mottley was appointed Minister of Education, Youth Affairs and Culture from 1994 to 2001.
She later served as Attorney General and Deputy Prime Minister of Barbados from 2001 to 2008 and was the first female to hold that position.
Ms. Mottley is an Attorney-at-law with a degree from the London School of Economics, specialising in advocacy. She is also a Barrister of the Bar of England and Wales.
In 2002, she became a member of the Local Privy Council. She was also admitted to the Inner Bar, becoming the youngest ever Queens Counsel in Barbados.
Ms. Isabelle Durant
Ms. Isabelle Durant
Acting Secretary-General of UNCTAD
Isabelle Durant assumed the role of acting Secretary-General of UNCTAD on 16 February 2021, after serving as the organization’s Deputy Secretary-General from 3 July 2017.
Since she joined UNCTAD, Ms. Durant has relentlessly contributed to making international trade more inclusive and greener. She has also been an advocate for gender equality.
Ms. Durant has been heavily involved in the socio-economic response of the UN to the coronavirus crisis and has led the work of UNCTAD in this area. This covered a broad range of interrelated issues including finance, technology, investment and sustainable development.
A former vice prime minister and senator of Belgium as well as vice president of the European parliament, Ms. Durant possesses solid experience in public affairs, intergovernmental processes and providing concrete assistance to countries.
She is well known for her acute skills in empowering people, addressing vulnerabilities at local and national levels and supporting governments towards good governance and sustainable policies.
Ms. Durant also served as minister of transport and energy in Belgium for four years. She oversaw mobility, infrastructure, energy and sustainable development policies between 1999 and 2003.
As vice president of the European parliament for the period 2009 to 2014, Ms. Durant chaired different permanent delegations, such as that of EU-African, Caribbean and Pacific countries following the Cotonou Agreement and other economic partnership agreements.
Ms. Durant also possesses a wealth of knowledge about relations with civil society representatives and the private sector, notably as the responsible vice president for the relations between the European parliament and the civil society.
As a Belgian senator from 2003 to 2009, Ms. Durant served on the committees for foreign affairs and social affairs and participated in many election observation missions, including to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt and Tunisia. She also served as a senior expert on local governance in Algeria in 2015 and 2016. In addition, she participated in or headed EU parliamentarian delegations to Iran, Myanmar and Haiti.
Immediately prior to becoming deputy head of UNCTAD, Ms. Durant was a member of the parliament of the Brussels capital region and of the Economic Affairs Committee. In the framework of a large reform of regional economic tools, she was especially involved in innovation, sharing and the circular economy.
Born in Belgium in 1954, she holds a Master’s degree in Economic and Social Policy from the country’s Université Catholique de Louvain. She is married and has three children.
Dr. Mariama Williams
Dr. Mariama Williams
Mariama Williams, Ph.D. is a feminist economist with over 20 years’ experience working on economic development, macroeconomic, trade external debt and finance issues, with a focus on gender equality and women’s empowerment, social equity, sustainable finance and development and climate change issues.
Dr. Williams is also a director of the Institute of Law and Economics (ILE), Jamaica; a member of the Caribbean Feminist Action Network; the Gender and Trade Coalition and a principal consultant with the Integrated Policy Research Institute (IPRI) and Senior Associate with the Political Ecology and Sustainability Programme of Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN).
Her other achievements/and associations include: former Coordinator, Sustainable Development, Climate Change and Gender (SDCCG) Programme, the South Centre, an inter-governmental think-tank of developing countries; a member of the Advisory Group of the SG’s High Level Task Force on Financing for Gender Equality (2019-2020); UN Women’s Expert Advisory Group, The SDG Monitoring Report; the Board of Trustees for the Dag Hammarskjöld Foundation (Sweden); a member of the steering committee of DAWN, a member of the International Working Group on Gender and Macroeconomics & International Trade (IWGEM) and a past Member of the Board and planning committee for the bi-annual forum for the Association for Women for Development (AWID); Coordinator/Research Adviser, the International Gender and Trade Network (IGTN).
Dr. Williams is the author of a number of publications. Among them are: Climate Change Finance – Coming out of the Margins (Routledge, 2015); Trading Stories: Experiences with Gender and Trade (co-edited with Marilyn Carr, Commonwealth Secretariat, 2010), co-author, Gender and Trade Action Guide: A Training Resource (Commonwealth Secretariat, 2007), and author, Gender Issues in the Multilateral Trading System (Commonwealth Secretariat, 2003).
Her current research areas are the debt & financial crisis, climate change & climate change financing, and gender trade and development. Dr. Williams has extensive experience in the areas of sovereign debt crises, international trade policy and macroeconomics and economic development.
Prof. V. Eudine Barriteau
PROF. V. EUDINE BARRITEAU
The Most Honourable Prof. V. Eudine Barriteau is a Professor of Gender and Public Policy, with a distinguished record as a Caribbean scholar and administrator. Professor Barriteau served as the first Head of the Centre for Gender and Development Studies: Nita Barrow Unit.
She was also the first woman at The University of the West Indies to be appointed Campus Coordinator, School for Graduate Studies and Research. She became the second woman to be appointed Deputy Principal at the Cave Hill Campus on August 01, 2008. On August 01, 2014 The UWI Open Campus welcomed Prof. Barriteau as its second Principal, a position she held for nine months before assuming the Principalship of the Cave Hill Campus on May 01, 2015. She retired on July 30, 2021.
Prof. Barriteau has received a number of national, regional and international awards and recognitions. On November 30, 2019, in celebration of Barbados’ 53rd Anniversary of Independence, The Order of the Freedom of Barbados, the country’s highest national honour, was awarded to Prof. Barriteau in recognition of her outstanding contribution to tertiary education and pioneering leadership in the development of gender studies and the promotion of gender equality.
Day 1
Feminist Vision for Finance, Investment and Entrepreneurship
Dr. Gillian Marcelle
Gillian Marcelle, Ph.D. leads Resilience Capital Ventures LLC, a boutique capital advisory practice specializing in blended finance. She has a proven track record in attracting investment, and focuses on telecoms, fintech, renewable energy and regenerative agriculture. Her specialty is the design and implementation of blended finance strategies that often involve partnerships, ecosystem strengthening and architectures for transformational change. Her experience includes staff roles with the International Finance Corporation, equity capital markets at JP Morgan Chase and M&A with British Telecom. As a thought leader, Dr. Marcelle developed the Triple B Framework which provides a vision and strategy to improve flows and allocation of capital in its multiple forms. This framework provides a platform for engaging in the finance and investment world, where her contributions and perspectives on diversity, inclusion, accountability and alignment with the SDGs are becoming influential. She serves on the Advisory Board of Marketspace USA, and has guided numerous ventures in the role of Senior Advisor. Her academic career includes a tenured Associate Professor role at Wits Business School in Johannesburg, South Africa, as well as teaching and research positions in the UK and the Caribbean. Dr. Marcelle is a published research scholar and maintains academic networks around the world. Her international public service includes appointments with the United Nations and the World Economic Forum.
Dr. Fulvia Farinelli
Dr. Fulvia Farinelli is Senior Economist in the Office of the Resident Coordinator of the United Nations in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She has held this post since October 2020. Dr. Farinelli previously served as Senior Economic Affairs Officer in the Division on Investment and Enterprise at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Geneva, Switzerland. Dr. Farinelli worked with UNCTAD for 22 years. She holds a Ph.D. in Economics of Innovation and Technical Change from Maastricht University in the Netherlands.
Dr. Michelle Rufaro Maziwisa
Dr. Michelle Rufaro Maziwisa is a post-doctoral researcher at the Dullah Omar Institute for Constitutional Law, Governance and Human Rights. She is an admitted attorney, and advocates for multi-disciplinary approaches to economic development, taking into account the gendered dimensions of economic governance. Dr. Maziwisa holds a Doctor of Laws (LLD) from the University of the Western Cape, Master of Laws (LLM) from the University of Cape Town and Bachelor of Laws from Nelson Mandela University. She has been awarded research fellowships from the University of Hamburg (Germany) and has presented in national and international conferences. Her areas of expertise are: public law, multilevel government law and policy, international trade and investment law, business and human rights, constitutional law, women’s rights, including feminist trade justice, and feminist tax justice.
Day 2
Imbalances in the Global Political Economy: What are the Systemic Macroeconomic Challenges in each Region?
Professor Corina Rodriquez-Enriquez
Professor Corina Rodriquez-Enriquez is a Researcher for the National Council of Research (CONICET) at the Interdisciplinary Centre for the Study of Public Policy (CIEPP) in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She is Co-director of the Ph.D. Programme on Political Economy, Interdisciplinary School of Social Studies (IDAES), and a Professor at National Universities in Argentina. She is also a Consultant for International Agencies, and is an Executive Committee Member at Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN). She earned a degree in Economics from the University of Buenos Aires, an MA on Public Policy from the Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, The Netherlands, and a Ph.D. in Social Sciences from Flacso, Argentina.
Vanda Radzik
Vanda Radzik is a Guyanese/Caribbean feminist, committed to Human Rights, Gender Equality and Climate Justice. She is a graduate of the University of the West Indies (Cave Hill). Her expertise is in Participatory Methodologies/Participatory Research for Action. Ms. Radzik is a Co-founder of Red Thread. She served as Country Coordinator – Canada-Caribbean Gender Equality Programme Fund and on the UN Women Caribbean Civil Society Advisory Group. She is currently serving on the Gender Technical Working Group of the “Spotlight” initiative. She has conducted a participatory Diagnostic Survey “Access to Justice” for Guyanese Indigenous Women. Her REDD+ work focuses on its potential benefits (and risks) for Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities. She also served on the Multi-Stakeholder group of the Low Carbon Development Strategy; and is currently a member of National Standard Setting Working Group for forest certification. She is a Civil Society member of the Multi-Stakeholder Group of the Guyana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative. She has contributed to the Iwokrama Centre for Rain Forest Conservation and Development and mechanisms for inclusive participation, representation, decision-making, benefit-sharing and gender equality with its Indigenous partners. Her national Awards include the Golden Arrow of Achievement (AA); Iwokrama for outstanding service and Woman of Distinction.
Aishu Balaji
Aishu Balaji is Coordinator of Research and Programs at Regions Refocus, which is the Co-Chair and Secretariat of the Gender and Trade Coalition. She has also undertaken research on the development industry through a critical lens as a Masters student at the London School of Economics and a research assistant to development academics. Her areas of inquiry have included caste-intersectionality in the Indian women’s movement, the political organizing of asylum seekers, autonomous development in post-independence Somaliland, and the politics of return migration.
Commodities and Gender: Agriculture, Fisheries, Dairy, and Extractive Sectors
Dr. Nursel Aydiner-Avsar
Dr. Nursel Aydiner-Avsar is an Associate Professor at Akdeniz University, Serik Faculty of Management, Department of Economics and Finance in Antalya, Turkey. Prior to joining Akdeniz University, she worked as a consultant for the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Trade, Gender and Development Programme in Geneva, Switzerland. Her research interests are in the fields of Development Economics, Labour Economics, and the Economics of Gender. One area of her research is centred on the labour market, including employment, wage inequality, working poverty, and education inequality; another area explores welfare issues from a gender perspective. During her time at UNCTAD, she specialized in gender and trade issues in the context of developing countries, contributed to international projects on Africa, Latin America and the Pacific, and drafted reports. She received a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Utah in the USA, an MA in Economics from Istanbul Technical University (ITU), and a B.Sc. in Management Engineering from ITU in Turkey.
Dr. Azra Sayeed
Azra Talat Sayeed, Ph.D. is the Executive Director for Roots for Equity, an organization working for the rights of small and landless farmers, that include the rights of women farmers and agriculture workers. She has taken part in developing and implementing political education centred on equity and equality of marginalized communities, especially women and girls in the rural communities and urban squatter settlements. She is currently the Chairperson for the Asia Pacific Research Network (APRN) as well as the International Women’s Alliance (IWA). Dr. Sayeed has served on the regional council of the Asia Pacific Forum on Women Law and Development for many years. She is also one of the two facilitators for the Women’s Constituency of the Civil Society Mechanism (CSM) lodged in the United Nation’s Committee on World Food Security (CFS).
Pauline Vande-Pallen
Pauline Vande-Pallen is Programme Officer with Third World Network Africa based in Accra, Ghana. She is also the current Convenor of the Network for Women’s Rights in Ghana. She has almost two decades of experience of working on Ghanaian, African and global gender and economic policy issues. She was educated at the University of Ghana (BA in French and Psychology) and the Institute for Social Studies (ISS), the Hague, Netherlands (MA in Development Studies).
Dr. Kai-Ann Skeete
Dr. Kai-Ann D Skeete is the Trade Research Fellow of the Shridath Ramphal Centre for International Trade Law, Policy and Services based at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Barbados. Dr. Skeete lectures on Research Methods for Trade as well as Regional Integration and Development within the Masters for International Trade Policy, as well as a compulsory post-graduate course called CARICOM and the CSME. Her research interests include CARICOM’s Forward Trade Agenda, Caribbean Regional Integration, Contingent Rights, Latin American Foreign Policy, Security Studies and Regional governance systems.
Maria Pena
Maria Pena is Project Officer at the Centre for Resource Management and Environmental Studies (CERMES), The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Barbados. She is a project management professional with 18 years’ experience in implementing and managing externally funded marine resource management projects in the wider Caribbean and conducting associated project research – socio-economic monitoring at marine and coastal sites; fisheries management planning; marine protected area management effectiveness evaluation; marine resource governance; climate change adaptation and disaster risk management in fisheries and aquaculture. More recently, Ms. Pena has been involved in research on gender in small-scale fisheries, and is co-coordinator of the CERMES Gender in Fisheries Team (GIFT).
Breakout Discussion Groups:
- Finance and Investment
- Debt and Tax
- Commodities
- COVID-19
- Labor/Care Economy
Dr. Attiya Waris
Dr. Attiya Waris is the only Professor of Fiscal Law and Policy in Eastern and Central Africa. She is the first female Director of Research and Enterprise at the University of Nairobi, Kenya. She holds a Ph.D. in Law and is a specialist in Fiscal Law, Policy and Development. She is an advocate, company secretary and arbitrator of over 20 years standing, and was the founding Chair, Fiscal Studies Committee from 2017-2020. She spearheaded the first agreement on sharing of data between a university and a revenue agency globally in 2016. She teaches at the Law School, University of Nairobi, and has previously taught in South Africa, Rwanda, Malaysia and the United Kingdom. She has researched and published on global, African, Asian, European as well as Latin American issues. Her book Tax and Development (2013) is the first publication globally that links the areas of tax and human rights, and her more recent publication Financing Africa is the first publication globally to map out African fiscal systems. She was a nominee in 2017 for the position of UN Special Rapporteur on Development. She is the current UN Independent Expert on Foreign Debt and other related international financial obligations of States on Human Rights (August 2021-2024) and is an Observer to the UN Tax Committee.
Dr. Angelique V. Nixon
Dr. Angelique V. Nixon is a Bahamas-born and raised, Trinidad-based writer, artist, scholar and activist. She is a Lecturer and Researcher at the Institute for Gender and Development Studies, The University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus, Trinidad and Tobago. Dr. Nixon is also a director of the feminist LGBTI civil society organisation CAISO: Sex & Gender Justice in Trinidad and Tobago. Her research and creative work are widely available. She is the author of the poetry and art chapbook titled Saltwater Healing and the award-winning scholarly book titled Resisting Paradise: Tourism, Diaspora, and Sexuality in Caribbean Culture. For two decades, she has worked in social justice movements and civil society and community organisations regionally and internationally. She is fiercely committed to intersectional queer feminist praxis, decolonial politics, and Black liberation.
Dr. Leith Dunn
Dr. Leith Dunn, a Jamaican Sociologist and Gender Specialist, graduated from the University of the West Indies Mona (BA, MSc) and the London School of Economics and Political Science (Ph.D.). She worked with the UN, the Commonwealth Secretariat, and is former Head of the UWI Institute for Gender and Development Studies, Mona Campus.
Her policy research/publications and teaching, have focused on gender mainstreaming: in the household, trade and economic development, the care economy, child labour, human trafficking, migration, climate change and disasters. She has received several awards for her work on gender and development from international, regional and national institutions. In 2019, APolitical.com named her among the 100 most influential persons globally promoting gender equality and gender policies.
Gender and Development, International Trade and UNCTAD: Future Prospects
Pamela Coke-Hamilton
Pamela Coke-Hamilton has served as Executive Director of the International Trade Centre since 1 October 2020. She joined ITC from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), where she was Director of the Division on International Trade and Commodities.
Ms. Coke-Hamilton has a breadth of experience and expertise in trade-related capacity-building and sustainable development. She served with the Jamaican Government, the Caribbean Forum in trade negotiations, and multilateral institutions, including the Organization of American States and InterAmerican Development Bank. She previously served as Executive Director of the Caribbean Export Development Agency, strengthening the private sector and micro, small and medium enterprises through investment promotion.
She has a deep understanding of the challenges faced by vulnerable economies such as the small island developing States and least developed countries. Ms. Coke-Hamilton has worked extensively with the private sector across African, Caribbean and Pacific countries and academia to build trade-related institutional strength within member States. She also established the Women Empowered through Export (WeXport) platform to address the disadvantages that women-owned firms experience in accessing markets.
Ms. Coke-Hamilton holds a Juris Doctor in Law from the Georgetown University School of Law in Washington, D.C., and a B.Sc. in International Relations and Economics from the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica.
Regional Trade Agreement and Gender
Nadira Bayat
Nadira Bayat has a background in international law and over 20 years that combine wide-ranging expertise across key policy areas on the sustainable development agenda, including in gender equality and women economic empowerment. She currently provides technical support to the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) cross-regional programme on gender and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AFCFTA). In her previous position as Gender and Trade Expert with the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Ms. Bayat led the approach to gender mainstreaming in AFCFTA National Implementation Strategies. She has served in various roles in other UN agencies, including at the International Court of Justice, UN Transitional Administration in East Timor and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. She has also held senior positions in the South African Government, including as Counsellor: Multilateral at the Embassy of South Africa in Washington, D.C.
Diyana Yahaya
Diyana Yahaya is a feminist activist, trainer, researcher, advocate and mobilizer. She has worked for more than a decade at local, national, regional and global levels to undertake research, carry out advocacy on laws and policies, build capacity and strengthen movements to understand, challenge and develop alternatives to the traditional model of economic development, and for human rights. She has carried out and advanced feminist and gendered analysis of the impact of trade, finance and investment rules through engagements with grassroots communities, fellow activists and civil societies, UN agencies, government officials and trade negotiators. She has also authored several briefs, reports, toolkits, and publications on various issues such as trade, economics, and feminist alternatives and demands.
Maureen Penjueli
Maureen Penjueli is the Coordinator for the Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG). PANG is a regional NGO based out of Suva, Fiji Islands, which works to promote and support the right of peoples to be self-determining (politically and economically). With over 20 years’ experience in the NGO world focused on environmental, social, political and economic justice issues that affect the lives of Pacific peoples and communities. PANG is involved in research and analysis to build knowledge systems to support, build capacity, empower communities and NGOs to engage policy process at the national, regional and global levels to bring about transformative change. Ms. Penjueli earned a B.Sc. in Australian Environmental Science from Griffith University, and a Bachelor of Applied Science from the University of the Pacific.
Dr. Michelle Maziwisa
Dr. Michelle Rufaro Maziwisa is a post-doctoral researcher at the Dullah Omar Institute for Constitutional Law, Governance and Human Rights in Cape Town, South Africa. She is an admitted attorney, and advocates for multi-disciplinary approaches to economic development, taking into account the gendered dimensions of economic governance. Dr. Maziwisa holds a Doctor of Laws (LLD) from the University of the Western Cape, Master of Laws (LLM) from the University of Cape Town and Bachelor of Laws from Nelson Mandela University. She has been awarded research fellowships from the University of Hamburg (Germany) and has presented in national and international conferences. Her areas of expertise are: public law, multilevel government law and policy, international trade and investment law, business and human rights, constitutional law, women’s rights, including feminist trade justice, and feminist tax justice.
Advocacy and Accountability: Who gets to be at the Trade Negotiating Table?
Nicole Bidegain Ponte
Nicole Bidegain Ponte is Social Affairs Officer, Division for Gender Affairs of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). Ms. Bidegain contributes to ECLAC intergovernmental work, particularly at the Technical Secretariat of the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean. She has expertise on the links between gender equality and trade and fiscal policies. She also supports technical cooperation activities and research analysis in these areas. She is an author and collaborator on several publications on women’s human rights, development and gender equality public policies, including “The 2030 Agenda and the Regional Gender Agenda: synergies for equality in Latin America and the Caribbean”. Ms. Bidegain is a sociologist who graduated from the University of the Republic in Uruguay and holds a Masters in Contemporary Latin American Studies from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Before joining the UN, as a member of regional and global civil society networks, Ms. Bidegain actively participated for more than a decade in following up on the commitments of the United Nations Conferences on women’s rights, population, financing for development, education and sustainable development.
Dr. Jan Yves Remy
Dr. Jan Yves Remy
Dr. Jan Yves Remy is the Director of the Shridath Ramphal Centre for International Trade Law, Policy and Services (the SRC). It is regarded as the premier trade institution of the University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus, Barbados, dedicated to training, research and outreach on issues of regional and international trade. She coordinates and lectures in the SRC flagship Masters in International Trade Policy (MITP) programme, and writes frequently on issues arising under Caribbean development and trade law. She holds the position of World Trade Organization (WTO) Chair at the University of the West Indies (Barbados), under the WTO Chair Programme.
Dr. Remy earned an undergraduate degree in law from the University of the West Indies (Hons); a Masters from the University of Cambridge (Hons); and a Ph.D. (summa cum laude) from the Graduate Institute of Development Studies on the Role of the Caribbean Court of Justice in Caribbean integration.
She previously worked as Senior Associate at Sidley Austin LLP (Geneva and Washington D.C.) and before that as Legal Officer at the Appellate Body of the WTO.
Day 3
High Level Global Townhall
Sustainability, Climate, and Extractives: Restructuring Development and Trade
Anita Nayar – Keynote Speaker
Anita Nayar has worked nationally and internationally on issues including women human rights, economic globalization, and climate justice. She previously served as Chief of the UN Non-Governmental Liaison Service in New York, and on the Executive Committee of the South-based feminist network, Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN). She currently directs Regions Refocus and co-chairs the Gender and Trade Coalition.
Dr. Maya Trotz
Dr. Maya Trotz is a Guyana born professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of South Florida. She directs STRONG Coasts, a National Research Traineeship programme to foster food, energy, and water solutions with coastal communities, and leads the knowledge management component of a Green Climate Fund project, Water Sector Resilience Nexus for Sustainability in Barbados. She is a past President of the Association of Environmental Engineering & Science Professors, and a board member of Fragments of Hope Corp, a coral restoration NGO in Belize. She holds a B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering from MIT, and MS and Ph.D. degrees in Environmental Engineering from Stanford University.
Feeling Blue: Feminist Perspectives on the Blue Economy
Emeline Siale IIolahia
Emeline Siale Ilolahia is Executive Director, Pacific Islands Association of Non-Government Organisations (PIANGO) Fiji/ Tonga/ Pacific region. She is a Tongan civil society leader, women’s advocate and activist. As Executive Director of PIANGO, she represents the interests of Pacific civil society in a range of regional and international fora. In her previous role as Executive Director of the Civil Society Forum of Tonga, she was instrumental in bringing together and supporting coalitions working on issues as diverse as ethical leadership, women’s access to finance, women’s leadership and political participation. Ms. Ilolahia was awarded an inaugural Jose Edgardo Campos Collaborative Leadership Award in Washington D.C. in 2016 in recognition of her contributions to local leadership efforts in Tonga.
Mereoni Chung
Mereoni is a Fijian feminist activist. She is an associate with Development Alternatives with Women for a New era (DAWN), with a keen focus on Political Ecology and Sustainability. Ms. Chung works with civil society organisations in Fiji, with Pacific collectives, and across the global South with feminist networks to mobilise action for gender equality and social justice. Presently, she is working with Pacific civil society collectives to progress critiques and alternative perspectives on global and regional development concerns and issues, such as the Blue Economy. She holds a Masters in Applied Anthropology and Participatory Development, and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Environmental Management and Development from the Australia National University (ANU), and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of the South Pacific, Fiji.
Leigh-Ann Worrell
Leigh-Ann Worrell is the Temporary Project Coordinator at the Institute for Gender and Development Studies: Nita Barrow Unit. In 2016, she completed a Masters in Women and Gender Studies at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. While there, she also worked as a Sexual Assault Outreach Coordinator at Carleton University Graduate Students Association.
She earned her first Masters in Social Policy from Beijing Normal University in China, and her Bachelor of Arts in Media and Communication at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica.
Ms. Worrell has also worked as a journalist at the Nation newspaper and the Barbados online newspaper, Barbados Today.
Indigenous Knowledge and Technologies: Rethinking Sustainability, Economy and Ecology
Alisi Rabukawaga-Nacewa
Alisi Rabukawaqa-Nacewa is one of Fiji’s leading ocean experts, who for the past decade has worked in environment conservation, climate activism and indigenous peoples’ traditional rights and knowledge advocacy.
Today she works as a marine scientist with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, providing consultation on marine protected areas within Fiji and with communities, as protected oceans are a solution to climate change and the resilience of the Pacific people.
She sits on the youth-led grassroots network 350.org Pacific Climate Warriors Council of Elders as the Melanesian representative, providing traditional knowledge on working with Pacific communities and indigenous perspectives to their climate justice work. She is also a member of the Indigenous Peoples Advisory Group for the Global Environment Facility as the Pacific representative.
Rabukawaqa-Nacewa is also one of the few Melanesian women who have sailed the world seas on a vaka, a traditional double-hulled canoe as part of the Te Mana o Te Moana (The Spirit of the Ocean) journey where sailors navigated waters across the Pacific Ocean promoting traditional sustainable shipping and ocean protection.
Her Excellency, Honourable Froyla Tzalam
Her Excellency Ms. Froyla Tzalam is a Mopan Maya woman from San Antonio, Toledo, Belize. She stands with a foot in both the Maya and western worlds.
As a Mopan Maya leader, she strives to forge understanding and tolerance between the indigenous and industrialized worlds. This requires ever more urgency under the shadow of climate change. Her Excellency believes that all people must know their history in order to promote and protect their identity and culture. In particular, she believes that the modern descendants of the ancient Maya have many reasons to be proud of their heritage and that our knowledge can contribute to the solutions of modern day challenges.
She authored “Learning to Read and Write in Mopan Maya”, a grammar book on Mopan Maya, as well as numerous articles on culture and identity. She was co-director of the African Maya History Project, for which she co-authored the book “Belize New Vision, African and Maya Civilizations”. During her time with the National Institute of Culture and History, she curated numerous exhibitions on Belize’s culture and history. Her Excellency was a part of the task force for the Belizean Studies programme that is now being implemented nation-wide in secondary schools.
Before taking the helm at the Sarstoon Temash Institute for Indigenous Management (SATIM), an NGO that promotes the rights of indigenous people while preserving the natural heritage of the country, she completed a report on Gender Equity among Q’eqchi Maya Women. Her findings have deeply influenced her work as the first woman to lead SATIIM. Her work resulted in formal participation of NGOs on national committees and the strengthening of community-based organizations’ governance to ensure accountability.
H.E. Ms. Froyla Tzlam holds a Master’s Degree in Rural Development from the University of Sussex, England, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Anthropology from Trinity University, Texas.
Gender, Trade and Development in the Caribbean
Tonni Brodber
Tonni Brodber is the Representative of the UN Women Multi-Country Office – Caribbean.
Prior to her appointment in August 2020, Ms. Brodber served as Deputy Representative from 2015 -2020 with the MCO Caribbean. Before this, Ms. Brodber was the Team Leader for the Advancing Gender Justice in the Pacific programme with the UN Women Fiji Multi-Country Office.
Ms. Brodber served as the Gender Specialist for the United Nations Development Programme in South Africa, as well as briefly with the UN Women South Africa Multi-Country Office and established what is now the UN Women Country Office in Haiti.
Ms. Brodber’s work experience also includes lecturing in International Relations and Development Studies at Yanshan University in China, and directing and co-producing a film on Haiti.
Ms. Brodber received her first degree from the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus and has post- graduate degrees in Development Studies and Business Administration from the London School of Economics and ESADE Business School in Barcelona, Spain.
Gender and the Creative Industries: Practitioners Cross-Regional Dialogue
Shanika Burnet
Shanika Burnet is an award-winning fashion designer and artist whose culture and lifestyle act as her direct inspiration. She is best known for creating environmentally conscious pieces and working with unique Caribbean designed textiles. Growing up in a Rastafari household, Ms. Burnet developed her love for the environment and began her journey in the arts as a young child. She spent many summers exploring her creativity, making doll clothes, craft projects and art and developed many additional skills through her teenage years as an avid art student. Since establishing Shakad in 2008, now re-branded Shakad Eco-Lifestyle, she has received several awards, including most recently, the Caribbean Style & Culture “Award of Excellence in Fashion Innovation” at the Caribbean Style and Culture Awards 2021 in Washington D.C., and has been nominated for several others, most notably, Best New Designer at AFWT (Africa Fashion Week Toronto) 2016.
Rehema Isa
Rehema Isa is a seasoned business strategist, leadership development coach and social impact entrepreneur. She is co-founder OYA (www.oya.company) a boutique strategy advisory firm designing and developing scale up solutions for enterprises; OYA Foods (www.oyafoods.company) – an agribusiness aggregator and processing enterprise linking women in the agribusiness sector to markets; and Womanomics Africa, charting economic highways which traverse geo-political boundaries connecting women in Africa to entrepreneur ecosystems, development partners and business opportunities facilitating intra Africa Trade (www.womanomics.net).
She is a faculty member of University of Witwatersrand Business School (WBS), Duke Corporate Education (Duke CE) and Johannesburg Business School (JBS) as an educator, leadership coach and action learning facilitator on executive and leadership development programmes.
Rehema is the licensee of TEDxLytteltonWomen, responsible for curating and producing 85 TEDx talks by African women over a period of 6 years, delivering on a mission to amplify the voices of African women.
Maame Araba Baboa Opoku
Maame Araba Baboa Opoku is a multidisciplinary Ghanaian artist and collaborator. Her body of work ranges from abstract paintings to more specific projects. An example of such a project is her Children of the Motleys cycle, painted with acrylic on skiagraph (Xray films sewn together with cotton threads).
Her works have been exhibited at the Fullmoon Exhibition, Artemartis (August 2019), Afrifem artxfeminism, Nubuke Foundation (March 2020), Stations of Protest, Cult Meraki/Nubuke Foundation (December 2020), among others. She has also collaborated with artists as well as established firms and organisations, an example being Vlisco International, on a three-month residency project on fashion and art, which ended in March 2021.
She belongs to an art collective based in Accra, Artemartis, where she serves as both an artist and its creative director. She is currently undergoing a fellowship at the Noldor Artist Residency in Ghana.
In her spare time, she works on charity projects with organizations, individuals and other artists, where she educates children in orphanages on art and helps them nurture their talents.
Dr. Tonya Haynes
Dr. Tonya Haynes is Co-Lead Organiser of the UNCTAD 15 Gender and Development Forum. Dr. Haynes is the first graduate of the Institute for Gender and Development Studies: Nita Barrow Unit (IGDS:NBU) Ph.D. programme, proudly representing a new generation of homegrown Caribbean feminist scholars. Animated by the liberatory potential of Caribbean feminisms, Dr. Haynes has published essays on Caribbean feminisms and feminist thought in Small Axe: A Caribbean Journal of Criticism, sx:archipelagos, Journal of Eastern Caribbean Studies and Love and Power: Caribbean Discourses on Gender (edited by Eudine Barriteau). Her research on gender-based violence is published in Global Public Health and Social and Economic Studies. She is co-editor (with Dr. Tami Navarro) of the Special Issue of the Scholar and Feminist Online entitled “Caribbean Feminisms: Interventions in Scholarship, Art, and Activism across the Region”. She currently serves as Acting Head of the IGDS:NBU, where she is also lecturer in Gender and Development Studies.
The Future of Work: Precarity, Gig Economy, Erosion of Unionisation, E-commerce, Artificial Intelligence
Ida Le Blanc
Ida Le Blanc is the General Secretary of the National Union of Domestic Employees (NUDE). A former 4th Vice President of the National Trade Union Centre (NATUC). At present she sits on the steering committee for Women and Work of the Economic Social and Cultural Rights Network based in New York, after being elected for a second term. Ms Le Blanc has served on several National Boards and Tri-partite Committees representing the NATUC and Civil Society. A former member of the Civil Society Advisory Group to UN Women for the Caribbean and an alumna of the Human Rights Advocate Program at the Columbia University, New York. Ms Le Blanc has worked on behalf of domestic workers and low-income workers at the national, regional and international levels, seeking protection and equity for them using the CEDAW and ILO Convention as tools. Ms. Le Blanc was the first Trade Unionist to bring cases before the Industrial Court of Trinidad and Tobago for violations of the Minimum Wages Order. She was victorious in leading the campaign, advocating for the decriminalization of the Minimum Wages Act giving unions the right to hear cases of non-compliance in the Industrial Court, and has spearheaded many victories won on behalf of low-income workers in cases of wrongful dismissal; retrenchment; and violations of the Maternity Protection Act and the Minimum Wages Act. Her passion does not lie only with grievance handling and advocacy, but also with training for low-income workers, in particular domestic workers. She has coordinated many programmes in collaboration with ILO, UN Women and other agencies to empower domestic workers and other low-income workers by training them in grievance handling, negotiation, organizing, recruiting, and raising awareness on their rights and entitlements in the workplace.
Sofia Scasserra
Sofia Scasserra is an economist. She has been working in trade and technology issues for the trade union movement since 2008. She is currently an associate researcher with the Transnational Institute (TNI) and specialises in digital economy, labour and development. She is a researcher at the World Labor Institute at Universidad Nacional Tres de Febrero (UNTREF) in Argentina. She is also an advisor to the international trade union movement and in the Argentine Senate.
Anita Gurumurthy
Anita Gurumurthy is a founding member and executive director of IT for Change, where she leads research collaborations and projects in relation to the network society, with a focus on governance, democracy and gender justice. Her work reflects a keen interest in southern frameworks and the political economy of Internet governance and data and surveillance. Anita engages actively with policy makers, practitioners, social movements activists and the academic community to expand and deepen conversations on the public policy imperatives of the intertwining of the digital in all spheres of life. She also directs and draws inspiration from the work of Prakriye, IT for Change field centre, that works towards promoting women’s and girls’ leadership and digital capabilities.
Isabelle Durant
Isabelle Durant assumed the role of acting Secretary-General of UNCTAD on 16 February 2021, after serving as the organization’s Deputy Secretary-General from 3 July 2017.
Since she joined UNCTAD, Ms. Durant has relentlessly contributed to making international trade more inclusive and greener. She has also been an advocate for gender equality.
Ms. Durant has been heavily involved in the socio-economic response of the UN to the coronavirus crisis and has led the work of UNCTAD in this area. This covered a broad range of interrelated issues including finance, technology, investment and sustainable development.
A former vice prime minister and senator of Belgium as well as vice president of the European parliament, Ms. Durant possesses solid experience in public affairs, intergovernmental processes and providing concrete assistance to countries.
She holds a Master’s degree in Economic and Social Policy from the country’s Université Catholique de Louvain.
Migration and Trade: Gender, Trafficking, and Forced Labour
Eni Lestari
Eni Lestari is an Indonesian domestic worker in Hong Kong and migrant rights activist. She is the chairperson of International Migrants Alliance, the first ever global alliance of grassroots migrants, immigrants, refugees and other displaced people. After escaping her abusive employer, she transformed herself from victim into organizer for domestic workers in particular and migrant workers in general. For nearly two decades, she has been active in migrants’ empowerment and held important positions in various organizations, alliances and formations working on the issue of migration, trafficking and women. She is an active resource person in forums organized by academics, inter-faith groups, civil societies, trade unions and many others at national, regional and international levels. She has actively participated in United Nations assemblies/conferences on development and migrants’ rights and chosen as a speaker at the opening of the UN General Assembly on Large Movement of Migrants and Refugees in 2016 in New York City, USA. She was also honoured with nominations and awards such as Inspirational Women by BBC 100 Women, Public Hero Award by RCTI, Indonesian Club Award, and Non-Profit Leader of Women of Influence by American Chamber Hong Kong, and Changemaker of Cathay Pacific.
Dr. Geraldine Asiwome Adiku
Dr. Geraldine Asiwome Adiku is a departmental lecturer at the department of Sociology University of Ghana. Her research areas include: ‘Global South’ to ‘Global North’ migration, African migration, migration and development, migration industry, transnational families, remittances and other transnational transfers. Her previous research has explored themes such as the role of ‘door-to-door’ shipping operators in Ghanaian international migration, the role of reverse remittances in the lives of African migrants in the West and how African states engage their Diaspora for development in the age of social media. Her current research explores the identity formation of second-generation immigrants on the African continent.
Dr. Joan Phillips
Dr. Joan Phillips is a senior lecturer and post-graduate coordinator of Sociology in the Department of Government, Sociology, Social Work and Psychology at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill. She is a graduate of the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, and completed her Ph.D. at the University of Bedfordshire. She is also a recipient of a Leverhulme Post-doctoral fellowship from the University of London, Royal Holloway. Her research focus is on the nexus between gender, race and sexuality. Her current research interests are mobilities in the diaspora, post-coloniality and its intersection with gender. She has also undertaken research into return migration. She is a skilled qualitative researcher with over thirty years of experience using a myriad of data collection methods including in-depth interviews, focus groups and other ethnographic methods to conduct hard to reach groups or vulnerable groups.
Underwriting Economic Production:
Exploitation of Unpaid Labour, Care Work, and Social Reproduction
Lebohang Liepollo Pheko
Lebohang Liepollo Pheko has been an activist scholar, academic, public intellectual, senior strategist and development practitioner for over 25 years. Her research interests are in Afrikan political economy, States and nationhood, international trade & global financial governance, feminisation of poverty, regional integration and impacts of globalisation on labour migration.
She is a Senior Research Fellow at the research and policy advocacy think tank – Trade Collective, a founding fellow of the Thabo Mbeki Leadership Institute, and has taught International Trade, Afrikan Feminist Theory, International Development, Political Economy, Political Theory and Race and Decolonial Studies, the position of African countries in relation to International Institutions like the IMF, World Bank, WTO, UN, ICC. She has contributed to several books on international trade, international development, politics and feminist studies and is considered a leading exponent on the African Political Economy, International Trade and African development. She has taught, worked and lived across 41 countries.
Daisy Arago
Daisy Arago is currently the Executive Director of Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR), an independent, non-profit NGO based in Quezon city, Philippines. CTUHR is engaged in documentation, investigation and monitoring of human rights violations committed against workers, their families and urban poor. It is also involved in education, capacity building and advocacy. Ms. Arago is also the Focal Person of the Labour Program of Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD) based in Chiangmai, Thailand. Being in the human rights NGO and APWLD at the same time, she gets the opportunity to work particularly with grassroots women in the region and get to involve herself in different initiatives inside and outside the Philippines relating to transnational corporations, their operations and their impacts on communities, particularly women.
Valeria Esquivel
Valeria Esquivel is Employment Policies and Gender Specialist at the International Labour Office, based in Geneva, Switzerland. Her latest publications have focused primarily on care policies and care workers. She has co-authored the reports Innovations in Care: New Concepts, New Actors, New Policies (Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, 2017) and Care work and care jobs for the future of decent work (ILO, 2018). She has also co-edited two Gender & Development issues, the first devoted to the Sustainable Development Goals (Vol. 24, No. 1, 2016) and the other to Beijing +25 (Vol.28, No. 2, 2020). Her latest research focuses on the intersections of gender, employment and macroeconomics. She is currently studying the gender employment impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the aim at proposing and supporting the implementation of gender-responsive employment policies.
Ms. Esquivel is a member of the Board of International Association for Feminist Economics (IAFFE ), is Associate Editor for Feminist Economics and is a member of the Editorial Advisory Group of Gender & Development.
Helene Davis-Whyte
Helene Davis Whyte is a trade unionist with close on 40 years involvement in the trade union movement. She is at present President of the Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions (JCTU)and General Secretary of the Jamaica Association of Local Government Officers. Mrs Davis Whyte is a proponent of the social dialogue approach to governance and is therefore integrally involved in many social partnership institutions in Jamaica, including the National Partnership Council and the Labour Advisory Council. She is also Co Chair of the Local and Regional Government Steering Group of the Caribbean Sub region of Public Services International (PSI) and has represented PSI and the JCTU at several international and Regional fora and conferences.
Professor Alissa Trotz
Alissa Trotz is Professor of Caribbean Studies at New College and Director of Women and Gender Studies at the University of Toronto. She is also affiliate faculty at the Dame Nita Barrow Institute of Gender and Development Studies at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, Barbados.
Dr. Daniele Bobb
Dr. Daniele Bobb is a lecturer at the IGDS:NBU, The UWI, Cave Hill Campus. Her research interest includes gender and development, social policies, mothering, and women and work. She completed a BSc. Psychology with Political Science (First Class Honours) and an MPhil in Political Science at the Cave Hill Campus. She is involved in many outreach and research projects in the areas of youth empowerment, the marginalization of vulnerable groups, gender and infrastructure, gender and religion, and gender and education. Dr. Bobb is steadfast in her devotion to the work for gender equity and enhancing the quality of life for all.
Dr. Edmé Domínguez R
Edmé Domínguez R.(born in Mexico, resident in Sweden) is Associate Professor (docent) in Peace and Development Studies, chairwomen of GADIP (Gender and Development in Practice) and member of the board of WIDE+, where she also coordinates the working group of Gender and Trade. She has a BA in International Relations from El Colegio de México and a PhD from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques (IEP), Paris, France. At present she works as lecturer in Latin American Studies, Gender studies and Global Political Economy at the School of Global Studies, University of Gothenburg. During the last 20 years she has been working and publishing on the social and gender implications of NAFTA for Mexico, on gender issues related to citizenship, political participation, labour, transnational activism and free trade agreements particularly in the case of Mexico, El Salvador and Bolivia. E-mail addresses: edme.dominguez@globalstudies.gu.se and edme.dominguez@gadip.se
Registration and attendance
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Creative Industries & Trade Digitisation Forum
29 September – 1 October 2021
UNCTAD has declared 2021 the International Year of the Creative Economy for Sustainable Development. The vision of the CITD Forum is to highlight the centrality of culture, creativity, technology and innovation to the economic, social, physical and mental wellbeing of people, particularly those at the periphery. In this age of climate change, global pandemics, and calls for greater socio-economic inclusion, the Forum’s plenary sessions, exhibits, showcases and experiences are designed to place creatives and innovators at the heart of new models that enable a more equitable future.
With the COVID-19 global pandemic upending development models that have stood for decades, now is the time to rethink the ways in which culture, creativity, innovation and technology might transform people’s mindsets to foster a more inclusive, just, sustainable, and empowering world.
Programme
September 29th - DAY 1
| Time | Room | Section | Activity | Moderator | Slido Admin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9:00 - 10:15 | Hibiscus | City Hall | plenary: Inequality at the Root PRE-RECORDED / moderated Q&A LIVE | Annalee Babb | Josue Nelson (lead), Rachana Sargeant, Faith Griffith, Ayele Matthias |
| 10:15 - 10:30 | Hibiscus | City Hall | Forum Introduction LIVE | ||
| 10:30 - 10:35 | Hibiscus | City Hall | Welcome Remarks | ||
| 10:35 - 10:53 | Hibiscus | City Hall | High Level Opening Remarks | ||
| 10:53 - 10:54 | Hibiscus | City Hall | Introduction to the Session | ||
| 10:54 - 11:50 | Hibiscus | City Hall | plenary: Creative Industries Through the Lens of Digitisation: Trends & Policy Challenges | Josanne Leonard | |
| 11:50 - 11:53 | Hibiscus | City Hall | Closing Remarks | ||
| 11:53 - 12:00 | Hibiscus | City Hall | Performance | ||
| 12:00 - 12:45 | Frangipani | NBC: Business Unusual | panel: Fin Tech: Financial Inclusion PRE-RECORDED | ||
| 12:45 | ALL | L U N C H B R E A K | |||
| 13:30 - 14:30 | Poinsettia | Future Academy | panel: AI + Educators: The Path Forward? | ||
| 14:30 - 15:45 | Flamboyant | NBC: Theatre District | conversation: Validating Our Own Stories PRE-RECORDED / moderated Q&A LIVE | Michelle Cox | Josue Nelson (lead), Janae Stuart, Charles Hunte, Malydia Phillips |
| 15:45 - 17:00 | Bougainvillea | NBC: Artists' Alley | panel: NFTs and the Promise of Digital Emancipation PRE-RECORDED / moderated Q&A LIVE | Zoe Osborne | Josue Nelson (lead), Janae Stuart, Charles Hunte, Malydia Phillips |
| 17:00 - 18:00 | Bougainvillea | NBC: Artists' Alley | conversation: Crucial Conversations: Small Island, Big Music | ||
| 18:00 - 19:00 | Poinsettia | Future Academy | panel: Immersive Tech Environments - Models for the Future PRE-RECORDED |
September 30th - DAY 2
| Time | Room | Section | Activity | Moderator | Slido Admin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9:15 - 10:30 | Hibiscus | City Hall | plenary: Creative, Cultural & Technological Emancipation - PRE-RECORDED / moderated Q&A LIVE | Adrian Green | Josue Nelson (lead), Charles Hunte, Malydia Phillips, Ayele Matthias |
| 10:30 - 11:45 | Bougainvillea | NBC: Artists' Alley | panel conversation: Spoken Words to Mend Broken Worlds PRE-RECORDED / moderated Q&A LIVE | Cyndi Marshall | Josue Nelson (lead), Charles Hunte, Malydia Phillips, Ayele Matthias |
| 11:45 - 12:45 | Poinsettia | Future Academy | panel: 21st Century Skills to Shape Innovative Minds PRE-RECORDED | ||
| 12:45:00 PM | ALL | L U N C H B R E A K | |||
| 13:30 - 14:45 | Hibiscus | City Hall | plenary: Harnessing IP & Digitisation: Current & Emerging Issues for Developing Countries - PRE-RECORDED / moderated Q&A LIVE | Josanne Leonard | Josue Nelson (lead), Janae Stuart, Rachana Sargeant, Faith Griffith |
| 14:45 - 16:00 | Poinsettia | Future Academy | conversation: Nurturing Mindfulness Amid Disruption PRE-RECORDED / moderated Q&A LIVE | Annalee Babb | Josue Nelson (lead), Janae Stuart, Rachana Sargeant, Faith Griffith |
| 16:00 - 17:00 | Flamboyant | NBC: Theatre District | NCF content | ||
| 17:00 - 18:00 | Poinsettia | Future Academy | panel: Teaching Entrepreneurship: Mission Possible? - PRE-RECORDED | ||
| 18:00 - 19:30 | Flamboyant | NBC: Theatre District | Tales In De Forest - PRE-RECORDED |
October 1st - DAY 3
| Time | Room | Section | Activity | Moderator | Slido Admin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9:15 - 10:30 | Hibiscus | City Hall | plenary: Creating Our Own Intersections - PRE-RECORDED / moderated Q&A LIVE | Annalee Babb | Josue Nelson (lead), Janae Stuart, Rachana Sargeant, Faith Griffith |
| 10:30 - 11:45 | Frangapani | NBC: Business Unusual | conversation: World Building and Cultural Expansion - PRE-RECORDED / moderated Q&A LIVE | Andre Harewood | Josue Nelson (lead), Janae Stuart, Rachana Sargeant, Faith Griffith |
| 11:45 - 12:45 | Flamboyant | NBC: Theatre District | NCF content | ||
| 12:45 | ALL | L U N C H B R E A K | |||
| 13:30 - 14:45 | Bougainvillea | NBC: Artists' Alley | conversation: E-Sports: The Future of Digital Sports - PRE-RECORDED / moderated Q&A LIVE | Josue Nelson | Omar Kennedy (lead), Janae Stuart, Rachana Sargeant, Faith Griffith |
| 14:45 - 15:00 | Bougainvillea | NBC: Artists' Alley | NFT Exhibition: Free Space | ||
| 15:00 - 15:30 | Flamboyant | NBC: Theatre District | NCF content | ||
| 15:30 - 16:45 | Frangapani | NBC: Business Unusual | panel: Practical Gaming: Application of Video Grame Design, Development to Business - PRE-RECORDED / moderated Q&A LIVE | Josue Nelson | Omar Kennedy (lead), Charles Hunte, Malydia Phillips, Ayele Matthias |
| 16:45 - 17:45 | Hibiscus | City Hall | plenary: Accelerating Social Good in the Creative and Tech Sectors | ||
| 17:45 - 17:50 | Hibiscus | City Hall | Closing |
Speakers
Inequality at the Root
Dr. Annalee C. Babb
Dr. Annalee C. Babb (Barbados | Moderator | Co-Lead Organiser, CITD Forum)
Dr. Annalee C. Babb is an international consultant specialising in technology, innovation, investment | export promotion, and the development of small island developing states (SIDS). She chairs the Digital Transformation and Solutions Committee of the Prime Minister of Barbados’ Jobs and Investment Council, and is co-lead organiser of UNCTAD 15’s Creative Industries Trade Digitisation Forum. She is a member of the CivTech Alliance, a global grouping that shares best practice on the most effective ways to nurture local innovation for the delivery of digital public services and govtech solutions. She is an expert member of the United for Smart Sustainable Cities (U4SSC) Simple Ways to be Smart Initiative of the International Telecommunication Union.
From 2018-2021, as Special Envoy to the Prime Minister of Barbados and Special Advisor to the Minister of Innovation, Science and Smart Technology, she led the team developing COVID-19 public health emergency management tech solutions for Barbados, served on the Board of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, was legislative co-Chair for the development of a national digital identity and mobile ID, led on the creation of a Barbados Tech Accelerator for the delivery of digital public services, and was Chair of Government’s Telecoms Working Group. She is the founding former CEO of Invest Barbados, created in 2006 to increase Barbados’ competitiveness as an international business and financial services hub and world-class jurisdiction for attracting foreign direct investment (FDI). From 2011 to 2015, she was also a member of the International Advisory Board of The Research Council of the Sultanate of Oman.
www.drannaleecbabb.com
