(MFA&FT: July 5, 2023)
The Global Jamaica Diaspora Council (GJDC) and Global Jamaica Diaspora Youth Council (GJDYC) were officially launched, in hybrid format, on Thursday, June 29 at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade’s Downtown, Kingston headquarters. In delivering the keynote address, State Minister with responsibility for Diaspora Affairs in the Ministry, the Hon. Alando Terrelonge welcomed “the expanded and inclusive Councils as a model for deeper partnership in the promotion and implementation of the National Diaspora Policy.”
The combined thirty (30) Member Councils, replace the seven-member Diaspora Advisory Board, which primarily constituted members from the traditional Diaspora locations—Canada, the United States of America (USA) and the United Kingdom (UK). The Councils, in addition to its wider reach with members from Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe, and the Middle East, also include sector-based members in the following areas: agriculture, arts, sports and culture, citizen security; commerce; environment; development issues; education; faith-based communities and health and wellness.
In making the point that “ Government of Jamaica has remained solution-oriented on Diaspora engagement,” Minister Terrelonge emphasised that the Councils were designed “to enhance and optimize the strengths of Jamaica’s vast global diaspora.” He further thanked the 30 members of the councils “for their selfless and unwavering commitment to the growth and sustainable development of Jamaica in keeping with the national development goals of Vision 2030, while empowering their local communities across the diaspora.”
The Launch included contributions from Ambassador Sheila Sealy Monteith, who read the Remarks of Senator the Hon Kamina Johnson Smith, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade. Minister Johnson Smith, emphasized that the GoJ’s Diaspora engagement model also takes into consideration the welfare of the Diaspora in their new homelands. “It has been our common will to partner on issues that involve and go beyond our shores to encompass every Jamaican wherever they have landed,” she noted. The Minister’s Remarks also reiterated that “Diaspora engagement remains a major foreign policy objective and a key pillar to Jamaica’s national development.”
In delivering remarks on behalf of Opposition Leader, Mr. Mark Golding, Dr. Angela Brown Burke, MP, described the launch as “an important milestone in Jamaica’s efforts to strengthen engagement with the Diaspora and to align it with the goals and focus areas outlined in the National Diaspora Policy.” She noted also that; “the Diaspora’s unwavering support has been instrumental in driving our progress.”
Reflecting on the broad collaboration and consensus among the multiple stakeholders involved in Diaspora engagement, Mr. Courtney Campbell, President and CEO of VM Group, Legacy Partner and incoming Chair of the 10th Biennial Diaspora Conference, commended the Councils for their achievements, since their 2020 establishment. These he noted included the staging of webinars on doing business in Jamaica, human trafficking, the role of faith-based organisations in national development and their contribution to the sustainable development symposium in 2021, and last year’s Jamaica60 Diaspora Conference. He also lauded the Diaspora for their “courage, ambition & patriotism.”
Four members of the Councils: Ms. Shauna Chin, Dr. Stephanie Fletcher, Mrs. Elizabeth Mullings, and Ms. Asha Richards, representing the elected, regional, sector-based and youth categories, respectively, spoke on behalf of the wider membership of the two Councils.
The true essence of Diaspora experience was on full display through the participation of recently announced Commonwealth Short Story overall winner, Kwame McPherson’s reading of an excerpt of his prose piece Ocoee. Mr. McPherson having lived in Canada briefly and the United Kingdom (UK) for thirty-one (31) years, returned to and has been living in Jamaica for the past two years. Of note, he cited the impact of Diaspora and homeland convergence on his winning piece, having entered eight times previously as a Diasporan.
The launch demonstrated the whole of government approach, with representatives from various MDAs, the private sector, legacy and development partners in attendance. This inclusive partnership serves as an important enabler of effective Diaspora engagement – a model through which consecutive Jamaica Diaspora Conferences have been successfully planned and executed.
