DR Leith Dunn, sociologist and head of the University of the West Indies’ Institute for Gender and Development Studies at Mona in Kingston, has again been named as a member of a Commonwealth team to observe presidential elections in an African country.

This time, she will join the team of Commonwealth observers for presidential elections in Rwanda.

Dr Dunn will leave the island shortly to join a 13-member delegation of eminent persons drawn from Africa, Asia, North America, Europe, the Pacific and the Caribbean, appointed by Commonwealth Secretary General Kamelesh Sharma.

The Commonwealth Observer Group will be led by former Tanzanian Prime Minister Dr Salim Ahmed Salim.

This is the third occasion on which Dr Dunn is being asked to serve as a Commonwealth election observer for polls on the African continent, a UWI press release said yesterday.

In March 2002, she was part of the Commonwealth Observer Group for controversial elections in Zimbabwe, and again in September 2006 she was requested to serve as part of the observer group for the Zambia presidential elections.

Dr Dunn’s current appointment will take place under the authority of the National Elections Commission of Rwanda, where the Commonwealth Observer Group has been mandated to help determine whether the conditions exist for the free expression of the will of the electors, and if the results of the elections reflect the wishes of the people of Rwanda.

This latest assignment for the UWI sociologist comes against the background of an active academic career in both gender studies and social development, including issues of gender and governance.

She is a graduate of the University of the West Indies and the London School of Economics (LSE), where she was awarded her doctoral degree in 1994. She is the former assistant representative at the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and has held senior programme officer positions with the Canadian development agency, CUSO and the British aid agency, Christian Aid. She is married to UWI academic, Dr Hopeton Dunn, with whom she has coauthored several publications.

The Commonwealth Observer Group will meet initially in the Rwandan capital of Kigali, after which members will be deployed in smaller groups throughout the country ahead of the August 9 election. She is scheduled to return to Jamaica in mid-August.