The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) has appointed a new Permanent Observer to the United Nations (UN) to provide representation at all relevant meetings at the UN, and to promote diplomatic interactions for the CARICOM Secretariat.
Dr. Leslie Wade, a national of St. Kitts and Nevis, presented her credentials to the UN Secretary-General, António Guterres on 5 December in New York.
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).
Other positions the new Permanent Observer held include 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.
Dr. Wade is the 5th Permanent Observer of CARICOM to the UN. Mr. Hamid Mohamed was the first CARICOM Permanent Observer (1995-2005); followed by Mr. Miles Stoby, (2005-2006); Ambassador Noel Sinclair, (2007-2014), and Ambassador Missouri Sherman-Peter, (2014- 2023).
