The P.J. Patterson Centre for Africa-Caribbean Advocacy now designated an Institute of The UWI
22 June 2022
Statesman in Residence at The University of the West Indies, the Most Hon. P.J. Patterson, Head of the P.J. Patterson Institute for Africa-Caribbean Advocacy
At the sitting of its University Finance and General Purposes Committee (U-F&GPC) on October 27, 2021, The University of the West Indies (The UWI) ratified the Naming Committee’s decision to convert the P.J. Patterson
Centre for Africa-Caribbean Advocacy into a University Institute.
The re-envisioned entity is now known as the P.J. Patterson Institute for Africa-Caribbean Advocacy.
According to the University’s Policy for the Establishment, Operation and Governance of Units, Centres
and Institutes, such academic entities facilitate extra-Departmental interactions and collaborations
that are appropriate for providing multi-disciplinary programmes of research, training and outreach in
selected thematic areas.
This change from a Centre operating on the Mona Campus to an Institute allows the entity to work
across all the campuses of the regional university while remaining in its current location. The P.J.
Patterson Centre for Africa-Caribbean Advocacy officially launched in June 26, 2020, with the mandate
to coordinate public policy and advocacy in fostering development relations between the Caribbean
and Africa.
The new structure will ensure the engagement and deployment of the full range of distinguished
scholars, technical experts and friends who are already committed to provide focussed expertise on a
critical range of regional needs to facilitate national, regional and international collaboration.
Vice-Chancellor of The UWI, Professor Sir Hilary Beckles expressed confidence in the decision based
on the increased scope of work undertaken by the Centre in the last two years of its operation, under
the guidance of the Statesman in Residence, the Most Hon. P.J. Patterson, former Prime Minister of
Jamaica.
Vice-Chancellor Beckles explained that the change in institutional form was necessitated for two
fundamental reasons—the scope of the mandate of the institution, especially in regard to the follow-up
to the Africa-Caribbean Summit and, the urgency of the role arising from the challenges confronting
Africa and the Caribbean in the wake of the global COVID-19 pandemic and the more recently the
dislocation resulting from the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Statesman in Residence, the Most Hon. P.J. Patterson also noted, “This new institutional form will
enable the Institute to discharge our mandate and facilitate engagement of all the resources of The
UWI in this time of unprecedented challenges which face Africa, the Caribbean and the Diaspora.”
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