WITH a career rooted in advancing gender equality and safeguarding vulnerable communities, newly appointed British High Commissioner to Jamaica Alicia Herbert says she will make tackling gender-based violence one of the defining pillars of her diplomatic tenure while on the island.

Before her appointment as Britain’s top envoy here, Herbert served as the United Kingdom’s director of education, gender and equalities, and the special envoy for gender equality at the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office from 2021 to 2025. That, she said, greatly influenced her interest in the issue.

“My previous role was the gender ambassador for the British Government, so I’ve done a lot of work in that area over the years and that continues to be a priority for the British Government — looking at the situation of gender equality more broadly, but within that as well, issues around gender-based violence. So what we hope to do is to work very closely with a range of Jamaican stakeholders in order to tackle those issues of gender-based violence,” Herbert said at this week’s Jamaica Observer Monday Exchange at the newspaper’s headquarters in St Andrew.

She told editors and reporters that gender-based violence was prevalent in both the UK and Jamaica, noting that despite both States making significant attempts to lessen its occurrence, the issue remains a top priority as women continue to be disproportionately the victims of gender-based and sexual crimes.

“In the spirit of exchange, I really want to stress that we’ve got a challenge in the UK, as well, around gender-based violence, and we have clear targets about wanting to halve the prevalence of violence against women and girls over the course of the next 10 years. So in the spirit of exchange, the ways in which we can tackle that, I hope to work with a range of Jamaican stakeholders in order to tackle issues of gender-based violence,” said Herbert.

According to data provided by Plan International, a humanitarian organisation in the UK that advocates equality of children and girls, one in four women in that country will experience domestic abuse in their lifetime.

The data also show that girls are at greater risk of sexual violence, and an estimated one in 10 have been subjected to it with 41 per cent of girls aged 14 to 17 having already faced sexual violence from their intimate partner.

Similarly, a 2023 United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) report highlighted that Jamaica had a high prevalence of domestic violence with nearly one in three Jamaican women (28 per cent) experiencing physical or sexual violence in their lifetime.

“We do have what we call a Violence Prevention Partnership Programme, which we focus through the school system in order to deal with that. But I think as we look to do more work in the area of, particularly gender-based violence, we probably will be looking at how we work on issues of domestic violence, or sometimes it’s called intimate partner violence,” said Herbert.

The Violence Prevention Partnership Programme, launched in 2024, is a £15-million initiative between the UK and Jamaica that will run for six years, designed to address the root causes of violence — including gender-based violence, particularly in schools and communities.

Additionally, in 2016, the British High Commission alongside the United States Embassy in Kingston funded the training of more than 300 police personnel and frontline responders to effectively recognise, deal with, and respond to victims of rape, sexual harassment, and domestic violence.

To further tackle the occurrence, Herbert confirmed that her contribution to the issue as high commissioner started through communication with several stakeholders, including governmental officials, who, she said, will play pivotal roles in making the country safe for all.

Notably, on February 17 the diplomat was in talks with the Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment, and Sport Olivia Grange, who in a
Facebook post noted her acceptance of Herbert’s invitation for Jamaica to join a coalition of countries in support of the global campaign to end violence against women and girls.

In her post, Grange said that members of the coalition would have equal access to a platform to raise issues, share evidence, experience, and effective strategies that will prevent and mitigate violence against women and girls, provide protection and support to those affected, and develop gender-responsive strategies.

“We’ve also invested very significantly, as the British Government, in works to prevent violence against women and girls, looking at evidence across the world… That’s the sort of thing that we hope to marshal in order to work in partnership with Jamaica to reduce the incidence and the prevalence of gender-based violence here,” Herbert said.