The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) has a new Permanent Observer to the United Nations (UN). Dr Leslie Wade, a national of St. Kitts and Nevis, presented her credentials to the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres on 5 December in New York. The CARICOM Permanent Observer provides representation at all relevant meetings at the UN, and promotes diplomatic interactions for the CARICOM Secretariat.

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.

She was also integral to the establishment of the ECOSOC Ad Hoc Advisory Group on African Countries Emerging from Conflict, which was a key outcome of  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 5^th 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).