NEW YORK, USA — Jamaica’s former Ambassador to the United Nations (UN) Curtis Ward was bestowed with the United States Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award during a ceremony at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, last week.

The award was one of two bestowed on Ambassador Ward, the other being the International Distinguished Leadership Award presented by the Caribbean and African Faith-Based Leadership Conference.

Both awards were “in recognition of the ambassador’s lifetime work in international affairs, diplomacy, civic engagement, research and policy initiatives that foster transformation in global, African and Caribbean affairs”, a citation accompanying the awards stated.

The Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award is made annually to honour people who exhibit outstanding character, work ethic and dedication to their communities.

It was established through an executive order by former US President George W Bush in 2003.

A leading voice in Diaspora affairs, the St Elizabeth-born Ward became the first high-level appointee from the Diaspora to serve in Jamaica’s foreign and diplomatic service.

He first served at the Jamaican Embassy in Washington, DC, then at the United Nations as ambassador and deputy permanent representative with special responsibility for Security Council affairs.

He was appointed to the posts by former Prime Minister PJ Patterson in 1999 after Jamaica was elected to serve a two-year term on the council, which term began in January 2000.

Ambassador Ward’s service on the Security Council was marked by an intense peace and security agenda including the council’s response to the 2001 terrorist attack on the United States.

He also went on to serve on a number of special assignments for the Security Council and later participated in a number of consulting roles with the UN and international non-governmental organisations.

Ward later went into the field of academia, first as an adjunct professional lecturer at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs and then as an adjunct professor in the Homeland Security Graduate Programme at the University of the District of Columbia.

Ward is the third Jamaican to have been bestowed with the Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award in the past year. The others are pan-Africanist, author and journalist Nana Farika Fayola Berhane, who received the award in September 2022; and Dr Elaine Bryan, Jamaica’s honorary consul in Atlanta, Georgia, who received the award in May.