One of a cadre of integrationists molded at the University of the West Indies and a self-described Federationist, Mr. Rainford holds a B.Sc. in Economics from the UWI. In 1963, he went to Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, earning a B.A.in Jurisprudence in 1965, and a Diploma in Economic Development in 1966. He was a Woodrow Wilson Fellow in 1971 and in that year, gained his Master of Arts in International Relations from the University of Toronto.

Secretary-General Rainford assumed office at a time of challenges, one of the more prominent among them being the Grenada crisis with the assassination of Prime Minister Maurice Bishop and the overthrow of his government. Within a month of assuming office, Secretary-General Rainford had to convene one of the most acrimonious Special Meetings of the Conference.

His tenure gave practical action and direction to major integration developments. For example, after Heads of Government adopted the Nassau Understanding on Structural Adjustment and Closer Integration for Accelerated Development in the Caribbean Community in 1984, Mr. Rainford and his team began a period of measured and careful rebuilding which culminated in the Grand Anse Declaration of 1989.

Among the developments under his tenure were substantial progress in the removal of barriers to the free movement of goods; advancement of the construction of the Common External Tariff; the rudiments of the Regional Stock Exchange and the cross-border listing and trading of shares in the Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago Stock Exchanges, were in place; the negotiation of the framework for the Caribbean Investment Fund; reactivation and revival of the Caribbean Festival of Arts (CARIFESTA); and the creation of or consolidation of institutions for common regional action such as the Caribbean Environmental Health Institute (CEHI) and the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency (CDERA) now the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA).

During his tenure, the Region introduced a new focus on the environment. In 1989, CARICOM Ministers of Environment issued a major Declaration – the Accord of Port-of-Spain which formed the basis for the Community’s strong and effective participation as a group in the June 1992 United Nations Conference on Environmental and Development.

Mr. Rainford has received several honours including the Cacique Crown of Honour from Guyana in 1989 and the Order of Jamaica in 1992. In 2008, the UWI conferred on him an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Laws.

The early years of CARIFESTA were captured from the Newspaper clippings collection sourced from The National Library of Guyana.  The CARIFESTA collection currently covers information emanating from all the CARIFESTAs held to date.   The Collection is supplemented by contributions from the Directorate of Human and Social Development through its Culture desk which liaises with the various  Directors of Culture in the region and with the Secretariats of the Host Country.

The Collection includes consultants’ and country reports, articles extracted from  magazines, correspondence, press releases, information leaflets, presentations at  Symposia, programmes, various CARIFESTA themes; posters, photographs and  newspaper clippings.

Explore CARIFESTA through the years

In response to her career urgings, Dr. Mair left her country of birth, Jamaica, to pursue a degree in History at the London University from which she graduated with Honours. On return to the Caribbean she obtained a Ph. D in History at the University of he West Indies. Dr. Mair has had a long and rewarding association with the UWI serving as Lecturer, first Warden of the Women’s Hall of Residence and in her post retirement years as the first head of its Women and Development Programme. She was instrumental in the establishment and success of this programme.
Dr. Mair has been hailed as a highly esteemed international diplomatic figure serving prestigiously as Assistant Secretary-General in the office of the United Nations Secretary in 1979, from which she performed with distinction the role of Secretary-General of the World Conference on the United Nations Decade for Women in 1980. The admirable record of international service of her career includes appointment as the Secretary-General’s Advisor to UNICEF on Women’s Development and Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Palestine from 1982 to 1987.

Dr. Mair’s service at the national level was no less distinctive. The Jamaican government sought her expertise for guidance on developing policies, measures and programmes intended to advance the status of its women and to integrate them fully in the process of development. She functioned as a public servant in several positions, as first Advisor on Women’s Affairs and head of the Jamaican Information Service in 1974 and a Deputy Head of Jamaica’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in 1975. Dr. Mair was subsequently appointed as Jamaica’s Ambassador to Cuba. In a second round of service to the Jamaica government, she was appointed a Senator and Minister of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and in 1992 was appointed to the substantive post of Permanent Representative for Jamaica to the United Nations. In spite of her rigorous diplomatic and other professional engagements Dr. Mair, remarkably, was able to serve as member of or representative on several international and regional boards and committees including the Board of Governors of the International Development Research Council in Canada, the Population Council (U.S.A.) and the International Conference on Apartheid in Nigeria. She worked with diligence to impact in positive ways the lives of women in the Caribbean as a regional coordinator of the Women and Development Studies Unit (WAND) of the UWI. Her career of committed service and extraordinary achievements in the realms of diplomacy, development and women’s advancement won her local, regional and international recognition. Among the awards she received is the OAS Women of Distinction Award in 1987 and the national honours of Commander of the Order of Distinction and the Order of Jamaica. She has the remarkable distinction of being conferred Honorary Doctorates from three universities, the University of the West Indies, the University of Florida and the University of Ulster in Ireland.

Dr. Mair has produced many publications. The breadth and diversity of her work has served to widen the scope of actions targeting women and their advancement in the Region.

I have readily and often confessed that I entered the University College of the West Indies over five decades ago as a Jamaican student, whose knowledge of the Caribbean stemmed from the snippets of its history and geography taught in the classic grammar school, and whose interest was circumscribed by the growing fortunes of the West Indian cricket team.

Idealists, as students should be, we envisioned a future where the peculiar genius of the Caribbean men and women would be spread throughout the region and extend across the universe to the corridors of international power. By the time of my graduation, I had been incurably infected by the regional virus.

It is now far too late to seek any cure. Pride and loyalty to the land of my birth have never deterred me from becoming and remaining an unrepentant regionalist.

What may admittedly have been a sentimental attachment then, has during the succeeding years hardened to a firm conviction that regional economic integration is an imperative; that the assertion of our united voice as sovereign nations in the global arena singing from the same hymn sheet is the only way for any of us to be heard in the global din.

As a result, our own national self-interest, demands that we widen, deepen and strengthen the Caribbean Community. There simply is no other way out especially in these rough and perilous times.

It is by fitting coincidence that this Award is being conferred in the capital city of the Community, where the Georgetown Accord of 1973 was signed and when Heads gather here for what is widely believed to be a meeting which will determine whether we swim safely ashore or drown separately in the Caribbean sea.

While it is true that the cynics who repeatedly have predicted the impending demise of the integration process were hitherto proven wrong, we must not assume that its perpetuity is inevitable. None of our Leaders here can doubt that the people of the Caribbean are eagerly awaiting to hear whether you decide here to keep the boat afloat and if so, how. Its fate lies in your hands.

Mr. Chairman,

During its 36 years of existence, the Caribbean Community, like any nation or institution has been forced to confront huge obstacles; to weather prolonged periods of turbulence (for nearly six years no Conference of Heads was convened – yet the other Institutions continued to function and thereby kept CARICOM alive.) That it has managed to endure despite all this does not, however, make its continuing existence inevitable.

Throughout the entire period there have been several areas of success for which no trumpets have sounded or bells have rung.

Many are the notable achievements which we now take for granted:

– we have done well in the pursuit of functional cooperation.

– We have built a strong regional institutional infrastructure in education, health, our response to natural disasters, development financing

– We have seen the promotion and sharing of our creative talents and achieved excellence in the fields of sports, entertainment and culture

– The sturdy barriers to trade and commerce have been dismantled, although every now and then some disturbing glitches appear.

– New entrepreneurial energies have been released and there has been a commendable growth of enterprise.

These positives are not intended to suggest that all is well, but to encourage us on the journey. We are yet to reach the state of perfection but we must not abandon the mission to improve the quality of life for the people of the Caribbean.

The litmus test for effective governance is not measured by the decisions taken when Heads meet. It is whether action follows: The greatest threat to the credibility of CARICOM lies squarely in the failure to implement solemn declarations and decisions made Conference after Conference.

Surely mature regionalism will remain a pipe dream unless authority is vested in an executive mechanism which is charged with full time responsibility for ensuring the implementation within a specified timeframe of the critical decisions taken by Heads or other designated organs of the Community.

For how much longer can a final decision be postponed on upgrading the institutional machinery if the Community is not to become comatose?

My early association with the visionary leaders who made the transition from CARIFTA to CARICOM, my prolonged involvement in the struggle to advance the integration movement and the present fears as to its fate, have prompted me to make a response that goes beyond nostalgic reflections to encompass some observations on the way ahead.

I am acutely aware of the danger in entering any discourse which may be seen as the preserve of the existing political realm. I believe, however, that the span and generosity of your citation entitle me to share a few considerations on the Caribbean in the world of today. You may attribute it all to the musings of a doting grandfather, and so kindly grant me the requisite indulgence.

Mr. Chairman,

The challenges which face every Member of this Community today are vastly different and far more daunting than those which existed at its inception.

The special trading regimes and protective arrangements for our sugar and bananas are no more. We are gradually being squeezed out from those areas of opportunity which globalisation and liberation were purported to allow. Instead, globalisation now threatens to overwhelm us all with a worldwide recession. No State, no Government, no Society within our Region is immune from the risk of economic disaster.

But let us not blame CARICOM for this, nor believe the prescription lies in retreating to insularity or parochial responses. Let us instead unleash the strengths that bind our people and thereby fuel the process of economic integration through which we can enlarge the productive capacities of our entire Region.

We in the Caribbean have grown accustomed to weather any storm and all calamities.

But we must look beyond the global crises and seize this as our defining moment to identify those areas where we can increase our productive capacity to provide greater food security, additional processing of agricultural raw materials, energy and mineral resources, information technology, tourism and its linkages with sports, entertainment, culture and the growing services sector.

And in the shaping of the New World Order, which everyone now supports (but which means different things to the developed and developing world), let there be a clarion call from the Caribbean, to make common cause with the rest of the developing world at this juncture with Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Pacific. It was on hallowed ground here in Georgetown, that the ACP was born, which was the key to our breakthrough in the historic Lome arrangements.

Let us explore new and dynamic relationships with nations such as Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

Mr. Chairman,

I have now retired to the pavilion. Allow me to alert you of my intention from there to lead the applause when, as I am sure, this Conference orders the implementation of those issues which have long been outstanding. They include:

– making the Single Market a living reality as you work towards the Single Economy. Unless you settle such issues as competition policy, investment and government procurement, there is the danger of undertaking obligations or conferring rights on external groupings which do not exist between us.

– advancing the protocol on the Contingent Rights of Skilled CARICOM Nationals so that there can be greater freedom on the movement of CARICOM citizens within the Region.

I will try hard to resist the temptation to run onto the playing field and cheer anyone at the wicket when the nod has been given for the CCJ to do all the work it was established and is so well equipped to undertake in providing Justice for our people as the Court of final jurisdiction.

Mr. Chairman,

In the Rose Hall Declaration of 2003, we reaffirmed that CARICOM is a Community of Sovereign States but recognized that within this framework it was both legitimate and feasible for a group or groups of community member states to forge such closer links among themselves as they collectively consider appropriate.

The collapse or disintegration of CARICOM is not an option. The Community will lose its way unless you and your Colleagues serve as devoted Trustees to improve the lives of the Caribbean people.

Make CARICOM matter to the worker, the teacher, the student, the businessman, the consumer, the artiste, the farmer, the indigenous people. CARICOM, after 36 years, is still a growing plant which we must nurture. Unless we tend the tree, it will wither and eventually die. Who is prepared to care for CARICOM? Who dares to stand up and be counted so that our Caribbean space can provide both food and shelter for us all?

I am particularly touched at being the only recipient today. I am convinced that the successful outcome of this 30th Meeting will guarantee that I am not the last.

I feel confident in speaking not only for myself, but also for the others who have received your highest accolade that the Caribbean Community is at liberty to call upon each and all of us to give of our experience, or share our expertise in any way that will serve to move our fellow citizens on the path of economic progress and social mobility; to ensure the fashioning of a Caribbean civilization, embedded in strong regional consciousness and rooted in the promotion of human dignity for those who call the Caribbean our only home.

As an agitator and champion of the cause of the working class, he entered Jamaica’s political arena via the trade union movement, with a strong leadership background as President of the National Workers’ Union of Jamaica and President of the Caribbean Mine Workers’ Federation which he founded.

In 1969, he was elected President of the People’s National Party and Leader of the Opposition, and the fourth Prime Minister of Jamaica in 1972.

Michael Manley served two more elected terms of office as President of Jamaica in 1976 and 1989. His Premiership brought about significant social reform in Jamaican society, including the introduction of a national minimum wage, paid maternity leave, equal pay for women and free education from Nursery to University.

He is among the league of the Caribbean stalwarts of integration and is classified as “one of the architects of the Caribbean Community”.

Known as a protagonist for the creation of a New International Economic Order, he has been vocal on Third World issues and was instrumental in the creation of the Association of Caribbean States.

Michael Manley has been engaged in the work of various regional and international bodies such as UNESCO and the EEC on matters pertaining, inter alia, to education and Caribbean tourism.

His outstanding career as political leader, integrationist, trade unionist and advocate for social reform has been rewarded with several high honours including the Order of Merit of Jamaica, the United Nations Gold Medal for his advocacy against apartheid, and the Joliot Curie Peace Award of the World Peace Council.

The computer was a mere thought in 1933, the year Rex Nettleford was born in the parish of Trelawny on the edge of Jamaica’s Cockpit Country. In those days, babies googled when they were fed and felt content – as, no doubt, did baby Nettleford whose mother lavished him with loving care.

Fast-forward to the end of the first decade of the 21st century. In the Information Age ‘Google’ is one of the technological wonders of the epoch; an Internet search engine that at the stroke of the keypad unearths in nanoseconds information on just about anything or anyone of note under the sun.

However, of the over six billion human beings on planet Earth, only those who do not know him would be surprised to discover that if you Google the name Nettleford, the first and dominant listing on the Internet is as follows “Rex Nettleford – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia”. And that is as it should be since the life work and works of Ralston Milton Nettleford – Rex – are not just noteworthy but are indeed encyclopedic.

Rex Nettleford’s intellectual brilliance and artistic creativity as a choreographer and dancer were recognized from his high school days at Cornwall College in Montego Bay. It was evident from the staging of “Boonguzu” one of his first choreographed dances in 1953 at Cornwall, that he would one day stamp an indelible mark on the field of creative expression that is modern dance. And so he has.

Having left high school on scholarship to the then fledgling University College of the West Indies (London University) to read for a degree in history, he subsequently attended Oxford University as a post graduate Rhodes Scholar in politics.

Nettleford’s choice of disciplines for study was quite deliberate since he had every intention of participating in the dismantling of the colonial regime extant. Immediately he returned home, the young scholar was assigned to the UWI’s Extra Mural Department by his mentor, founding father of the University, Sir Phillip Sherlock. Nettle ford would head this department and eventually nurture it into the School of Continuing Studies; and through it he would pursue his life’s work – the emancipation of the Caribbean colonial mind from mental slavery in its quest for identity.

The Extra Mural department provided Nettleford the perfect vehicle for linking town and gown at two levels: The first was as an academic, where it allowed him to hone in on matters that touched the lives of ordinary citizens, in his research and publications. One of his initial such forays, in collaboration with M.G. Smith and Roy Augier was a seminal study of Rastafarianism in Jamaica; a study that was to give legitimacy to a maligned and marginalized group in the society at the time. Decades later Rasta would give Reggae, Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff and many others to the world of music on a global scale. And their message would be unambiguously culturally self-assertive and empowering: No need to denigrate others in order to uplift self; a mantra quite in keeping with Nettleford’s philosophy and scholarly pursuits.

That Nettleford found common cause with workers in his development of the University’s Trade Union Education Institute which he simultaneously headed, was also consonant with that philosophy. Today the voice of workers at the work place is not taken for granted throughout the Caribbean, thanks in no small measure to his commitment to their empowerment through education.

At a second level, the Extra Mural department also facilitated if not demanded engagement with the public, non-formally as well as non-traditionally. It was therefore not coincidental that nine years after his first choreographed dance production at Cornwall College, Rex Nettleford co-founded the National Dance Theatre Company of Jamaica (the NDTC), coinciding with the independence of his native land. Almost five decades later the NDTC and singers are almost as synonymous with Jamaica globally as is the name Bob Marley. The Company’s popularity regionally and in the Diaspora emanates from its grounding in the cultural heritage of the folk, to which Nettleford as its artistic director never lost his commitment.

In 1975 Professor Nettleford was made a member of the Order of Merit – the highest non-political national honour of his native Jamaica and he is one of only four Fellows of the Institute of Jamaica the institutional repository of the island’s cultural heritage. When he was selected to be Vice Chancellor of the University of the West Indies in 1996, he was the first graduate of the University to head the region’s premier tertiary level institution. The largest Hall of Residence on the Mona Campus of the University is named after him. And to commemorate the centenary of Rhodes scholarships in the Caribbean, in 2003, the Rhodes Trust established the Rex Nettleford Fellowship in Cultural Studies, to be awarded annually in recognition of his cultural pre-eminence and enormous contribution to Caribbean regional cultural wholeness. Rex Nettleford and His Works: An Annotated Bibliography, edited by Albertina Jefferson, is a 194 page compilation of his scholarly and creative output.

In the international arena, Rex Nettleford has received some fourteen honourary degrees from universities including the UniverSity of Toronto and the University of Oxford whose Oriel College also made him one of its Fellows (of which there are only 69). Professor Nettleford has served in various leadership capacities on numerous regional and international bodies including, CARICOM and the West Indian Commission, the IDRC, UNESCO, the ILO and the OAS. He is also the recipient of the Zora Neale Hurston-Paul Robeson Award for Outstanding Scholarly Achievement from the National Council for Black Studies, USA.

Few, very few indeed, are endowed with Rex’oratorical skills. We all marvel at the way he choreographs ideas as if they were a symphony of movement that, in his words, elevate “the creative imagination” and our “sense and sensibilities”. Who else can create an alliteration of the “uncultured” by visioning that a “bhuto in a Benz is still a bhuto.” Who else can sign his correspondence as “Rex” with the full confidence that the beholder would be in no doubt that the missive from a King called Nettleford?

The Region has shaped this extraordinary person. In turn he has helped to shape and project the Region so profoundly, as a professor, a dancer, a writer, a manager, an orator, a mentor, a critic, a household name, an international icon, a true Ambassador of the Caribbean, a quintessential Caribbean Man. For all these reason and more, the Caribbean Community can do no less than to bestow on him, with its gratitude, the Order of the Caribbean Community while it invites the rest of the world to “Google Nettleford” for inspiration.

Professor Barbara Evelyn Bailey, Jamaican by birth and a Caribbean woman by disposition, has distinguished herself as an educator and as an advocate of gender equality and equity in the Caribbean Community and beyond. She has done so primarily through her teaching and research at the University of the West Indies and through unstinting public service at both national and regional levels. Her service to her country and the region and in particular, women’s empowerment has been undertaken not only within the confines of academia, and the public service but extended its reach to the community level, where as a committed Christian woman, she ensured that her skills and talents in the area of advocacy and women’s empowerment were made available for use in the service of the Church at national, regional and international levels.

This eminent scholar reached the pinnacle of her academic career in 2003, when she was appointed Professor, Gender & Education, having served as University Director of the Regional Coordinating Unit of the Centre for Gender & Development Studies, University of the West Indies from 1995. Professor Bailey received her academic training at the University College of the West Indies, and later at the University of the West Indies, where she read for Bachelor of Science Degrees in Botany & Zoology, and Medical Microbiology and Masters and Doctoral degrees in Education. She has served her Alma Mater with distinction in several capacities over the past twenty-eight years.

Professor Bailey is a prolific researcher and writer. She has authored and edited numerous books and articles in refereed journals and has presented papers at several academic conferences and policy oriented meetings. Her abiding interest in educational development within the region is reflected in her research profile, with the majority of her publications centering on issues related to gender and education. One of her most critical pieces of research is that on Gender Differentials in education which examines the underlying issues related to what is now manifested in growing gaps in participation and performance between boys and girls in education. Her work in this area aims at improving the understanding of gender and its impact on the educational process and education outputs. Her research also encompass gender based violence, gender disparities within the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME), micro enterprise development, gender ideology and pedagogy including feminist pedagogical theory.

Professor Bailey has a clear entrepreneurial bent having succeeded in mobilizing substantial sums for Gender projects. She was formally recognized by the University for this when, in 2007 she was awarded the Principal’s Research Award for the Research Project Attracting the Most Research Funds. In that same year, she also received the Principal’s Research Award for The Research Project with the Greatest Business/Economic/Development Impact for a Research Project in Gender Training and Research.

Professor Bailey’s tireless research efforts have served to provide sound policy advice to the Government of Jamaica as well as to the Region on matters related to gender and women’s rights. She has represented the Government of Jamaica at regional and international conferences since 1985 when the United Nations World Conference to Review the Achievements of the United Nations Decade for Women, was held in Nairobi, Kenya, and since 2004, has chaired the National Gender Advisory Committee, mandated to develop a strategic and comprehensive policy for achieving gender equality and social justice and provide direction, coordination, integration and monitoring of gender mainstreaming activities of the Government of Jamaica. She was appointed the representative to the Meeting of the Committee of Experts on Violence (CEVI) of the Inter-American Commission of Women, Organization of American States, July 2007 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Professor Bailey has given yeoman service to the Region and has been integrally involved in the work of the Council for Human and Social Development (COHSOD). She has served in an advisory capacity on the Regional Advisory Committee on Gender and Development, a Task Force co-chaired by CARICOM and UNIFEM, and also as a Member of the CARICOM Task Force on Gender Mainstreaming. The Region has benefitted from Professor Bailey’s expertise as she served as consultant to several CARICOM led projects and activities such as Consultant to Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat at the Twenty-Third Special Session of the General Assembly entitled Women 2000: gender equality, development and peace for the twenty-first century, United Nations Headquarters, New York, June 2000, and Consultant to Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat at the Eighth Session of the Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean, Lima, Peru. She has also made significant contribution to capacity building of the Gender Bureau throughout the Region.

The work that Barbara Evelyn Bailey has undertaken and has pursued so passionately, has in no small way assisted Caribbean countries to achieve national and international development goals including their commitments to the Convention for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the Millennium Development Goals, especially promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women. She joins a group of select women who have made significant contributions at the national and regional level in various fields of endeavour that have impacted positively on the social and economic development of the Community.

When Professor Bailey’s achievements are considered against the background of the challenges that many women face in combining their productive, reproductive and community management roles, her contribution looms even larger. Over the years, she has managed to combine her role as a Methodist Minister’s wife; caregiver; mother of six children and grandmother of five with an amazing and fulfilling career in the service of the Community.

For her outstanding contribution in the field of women and development, it is fitting that the Caribbean Community now invites Professor Barbara Evelyn Bailey to accept the Ninth Triennial Award for Women.

A Domestic Worker herself for 31 years, she has led the way in changing the situation of domestic workers nationally, regionally and internationally and today, she is described as “one of the most outstanding Domestic Workers leaders in the world”. In her journey, she  established and continues to preside over the first-ever domestic workers union in Jamaica, the Jamaican Household Workers Union (formally titled Jamaican Household Workers Association) that currently represents 58,000 Domestic workers . She is also a Board Member of the Association of Women’s Organisation of Jamaica (AWOJA)  A true Caribbean woman, she is also, Founder of the Antigua Domestic Workers’ Association, as well as Founder and President of the Caribbean Domestic Workers Network.

Internationally , she is an elected Board Member of the Association  for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID) and a member of the  Caribbean Advisory Group to the United Nations Women and Gender Issues.

In her capacity as President of the Caribbean Domestic Workers Network, she has created awareness and sensitised policy makers  to the ILO Convention (No. 189); advocating for its ratification. In this context, in 2013, Guyana became the ninth country and the first in the Caribbean  to do so. This Convention and its accompanying Recommendation (No201), both adopted in 2011, guarantee minimum labour protections to Domestic workers. Being the first international labour standards specifically devoted to Domestic workers, they bring these workers under the umbrella of labour law. (ILO, 2013).

Ms. Pryce’s work  and programmes in Jamaica and the wider Caribbean supported by international Development partners (IDPs) including the ILO, UN Women, the Federick Stiftung (FES), have addressed  Domestic workers in the areas of capacity building, advocacy, economic empowerment,, labour and gender-based violence.

She has worked along with the Caribbean Policy Development Centre in Barbados in several Caribbean islands to educate Domestic workers on how to access employment and other opportunities through the CARICOM Single Market and Economy.

She was  also part of the Jamaica Non-Governmental Organisation team that wrote and presented the alternate report on the Convention on Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) at the United Nations.

Ms. Pryce’s journey has been a long  one of   political commitment for women’s human and civil rights  and for making gender democracy a reality.  Along the way  this untiring champion, ever committed to  the pursuit of excellence and growth, achieved in 2011 a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Work from the Jamaica Theological Seminary; and in 2016 An Advanced Masters’ Degree  in Labour Law and Global Workers’ Rights from the , Pennsylvania State University, USA.

She is the recipient of several awards including the Badge of Honour for meritorious service to Jamaica (2006), First Caribbean Bank Unsung Heroes Award ( 2007); and the  Order  of Distinction (Jamaica) for outstanding contribution in working  with Domestic workers in the Caribbean (2015); and the Bureau of Women’s Affairs Award for outstanding contribution to initiative focused on sensitizing the public on gender-based violence in Jamaica.

The Caribbean Community celebrates  this  distinguished daughter  and   is pleased to formally record her footprints in the annals of Caribbean integration.