GEORGETOWN, Guyana (CMC) – The 15-member Caribbean Community (Caricom) grouping on Monday said it had appointed Dr Leslie Wade as its new permanent observer to the United Nations (UN).

A statement issued by the Guyana-based Caricom Secretariat said that the St Kitts-Nevis national, who presented her credentials to the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres on December 5, in New York, will “provide representation at all relevant meetings at the UN, and to promote diplomatic interactions for the CARICOM Secretariat.”

“It said with close to four decades’ experience in the UN system from 1985-2023, Dr Wade most recently held the position of director in the Office of Intergovernmental Support and Coordination for Sustainable Development in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA).

She was also the senior liaison officer in the New York Office of the World Health Organization (WHO) and served in the Office of the Special Adviser on Africa and the Least Developed Countries (OSCAL).

In addition, she was the economic affairs officer specialising in Regional Economic Integration and Trade at the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) in Santiago, Chile; Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago and Mexico City, Mexico.

Dr Wade also participated in Peacekeeping Missions (Namibia, 1989-1990 and Cambodia, 1992-1993) and Electoral Assistance Missions in El Salvador and Mozambique in 1994.

”Other notable accomplishments include developing the proposal to create the ECOSOC Ad Hoc Advisory Group on African Countries Emerging from Conflict, as a General Assembly follow-up to the Kofi Annan’s Seminal 1998 Report on the Causes of Conflict and the Promotion of Durable Peace and Sustainable Development in Africa,” the Secretariat said.

Dr Wade is the fifth permanent observer of Caricom to the UN since Hamid Mohamed.