THEME: Regional Resilience: ICT, STEM and Youth
Chairperson: Jennifer Britton, Deputy Programme Manager, ICT4D, CARICOM Secretariat
The CARICOM Digital Dialogue is organized by the CARICOM Girls in ICT Partnership. The Partnership was endorsed by the Ministers responsible for ICT at the Seventy-Ninth Special Meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), held on 8 November 2019.
The Partnership is comprised of Member States and Associate members, regional and International entities.
The event will encourage and empower girls and young women to choose careers in ICT and STEM related fields.
KEYNOTE SPEAKER: Dr. Barbara Reynolds, Education, EPR, Human rights and Gender Consultant, Guyana
Topic: “Girls and ICT: Actualising CARICOM’s Potential”
Barbara Reynolds served as Deputy Vice-Chancellor – Planning and International Engagement, and Deputy Vice-Chancellor – Academics at the University of Guyana from August 2014 to September 2019. Prior to her assignment with the University of Guyana, Ms Reynolds was Head of Education for Save the Children UK and prior to that spent some twenty-three years with UNICEF in a range of capacities, including representational and programme assignments in education, child protection and innovation in Angola, Botswana, China, Liberia, Nigeria, Zambia and at UNICEF’s Headquarters in New York.
Ms Reynolds began her professional career as a teacher at the Central High School in Georgetown, Guyana, then at the Secondary School attached to the Caribbean Union College in Trinidad, and subsequently as a Teacher and Assistant Principal at the Westmoreland Secondary School in Grenada.
Ms Reynolds has a keen interest in the development response to internally displaced persons, the role of the private sector in education and the integration of computer technologies in education. She is an active human rights professional, and an experienced HRBAP and Gender Mainstreaming facilitator. She is a founding member of NCD Child, an international alliance of individuals and organisations committed to the prevention, treatment and care of children and adolescents affected by NCDs. She is currently a member of the Board of the Cyril Potter College of Education and of the National Accreditation Council, and has just been appointed as the Chair of the Board of the Kuru Kuru Cooperative College.
She holds a BA Education from Caribbean Union College, MA in Curriculum and Teaching from Howard University, the Post-Graduate Diploma in Distance Education from the University of London, the Doctorate of Education in International Education Development/Curriculum and Instruction from Columbia University and the Masters in International Human Rights Law from the University of Oxford. Ms Reynolds’ second working language is Portuguese. She is active in her home church, particularly in the areas music, religious liberty and youth development.
Resources:
Welcome Remarks by Jennifer Britton:
Snippet from Interview with Commissioner Nicole Cole – Women and Gender Equality Commission https://www.facebook.com/caricom.org/videos/693118234782614/
Interview with Penelope DeFreitas – University of Guyana:
Statement by Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of UN Women, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka for International Girls in ICT Day, 23 April 2020: https://www.unwomen.org/en/news/stories/2020/4/statement-ed-international-day-of-girls-in-ict
