Barbados has been elected as one of three Vice Presidents of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) representing Latin America and the Caribbean for the 79th Session of the General Assembly, which runs from September 2024 to September 2025. 

Barbados will be the only Caribbean country among a total of 21 Vice Presidents. The last time Barbados occupied the post was from 2002 to 2003.

Vice Presidents deputise for the President, who is currently the former Prime Minister of Cameroon, Philemon Yang, at the General Assembly.  President Yang began his term on September 10, 2024.

In deputising for the President, they preside over the General Assembly in his absence. They are also entrusted with chairing and facilitating other discussions and negotiations in the President’s name.

UNGA is the main policy-making organ of the Organization. It is the only body of the United Nations to which all UN member states belong.  

The General Assembly provides a unique forum for multilateral discussion of the full spectrum of international issues covered by the Charter of the United Nations. Each of the 193 Member States of the United Nations has an equal vote.

UNGA also makes key decisions for the UN, including appointing the Secretary-General on the recommendation of the Security Council; electing the non-permanent members of the Security Council; and approving the UN budget. 

The Assembly meets in regular sessions from September to December each year, and thereafter as required. It discusses specific issues through dedicated agenda items or sub-items, which lead to the adoption of resolutions. (PR/GIS)

Former Military Advisor to the Chief of Staff of the Barbados Defence Force (BDF), Lieutenant Colonel Carlos Lovell, has official become the force’s new Chief of Staff.

In a brief swearing in ceremony at State House on Tuesday, Lovell, will assume the rank of Brigadier on September 18, said he was humbled by the new position.

“It is my pleasure to say to Barbados that I have the honour and the privilege to take command of the Barbados Defence Force, taking the reins from Commodore Errington Shurland, one of our finest military officers whose ever been in the Barbados Defence Force.”

A more robust public education campaign will soon be undertaken in Barbados, with respect to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

This assurance came recently from Project Coordinator in the SDGs Unit in the Prime Minister’s Office, Krystal Yearwood, at the end of the National Consultation on the Identification of Priority Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Indicators for Barbados, hosted at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre (LESC), Two Mile Hill, St. Michael.

The Consultation was held in collaboration with the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Investment, the Prime Minister’s Office, the United Nations Population Fund and the Joint SDGs Fund.

During an interview with the Barbados Government Information Service, Ms. Yearwood noted that the campaign would focus on the goals and the significance of these to the “average man”.

Elaborating, she stated: “When we hear about the Sustainable Development Goals, we think about it as just the global aspect; but what people really want to know is how do these goals relate to me.

“What sustainable development means for us, for example, is ensuring that we have sustainable and affordable housing for people, and it means ensuring that our physical ecosystems, such as our gullies and coral reefs, are protected. It also means that we’re able to make our social protection programmes more tailored to the needs of the vulnerable, and sustainable development encompasses all these components. In order to ensure that this is understood across the length and breadth of Barbados, public education will be a part of our next steps going forward.”

“What sustainable development means for us, for example, is ensuring that we have sustainable and affordable housing for people, and it means ensuring that our physical ecosystems, such as our gullies and coral reefs, are protected.” – Project Coordinator in the SDGs Unit in the Prime Minister’s Office, Krystal Yearwood

Ms. Yearwood also pointed out that a consultancy team is being led by Dr. Dion Greenidge, who was engaged under the UN Joint SDG Fund entitled, Integrated Population Data and Policy Solutions to Accelerate SDGs Achievement in Barbados and Montserrat.

She added that Dr. Greenidge and his team are currently working on a baseline study to show exactly where Barbados is with regard to specific SDGs indicator data collection and will make recommendations on how to improve data collection across the sustainable development goals indicators.

Explaining the importance of this, the SDG Project Coordinator stressed: “If the data is not being collected, the consultants will recommend how best we can go about collecting that data. Once we have that information, then we’re able to present it to the relevant stakeholders within government, and use it to make informed decisions, and to decide how we will move forward as a country to achieve the goals.”

During the stakeholder engagement at the LESC, Ms. Yearwood shared that the participants had identified a priority list of indicators based on the SDG pillars – people, prosperity, planet, peace and partnerships. 

Adding that the priority list of indicators is still being fine-tuned, Ms. Yearwood stressed that the realisation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 required a “whole of government effort and a whole of society approach”. (PR/GIS)