Saint Lucia’s sitting Agriculture Minister Lisa Jawahir has joined a cohort of 39 outstanding women leaders drawn from across Africa and the Caribbean to earn graduation credentials from the first-ever African Academy for Women in Political Leadership, following a formal closing ceremony hosted in Kigali, Rwanda, on November 12. Jawahir stood out as one of merely two representatives selected from the entire Caribbean region to take part in the landmark inaugural cohort, marking a significant milestone for Saint Lucia’s representation in cross-regional women’s political advancement efforts.
The flagship leadership initiative was jointly developed and rolled out by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in collaboration with the African School of Governance, the African Union Commission, and the African Women Leaders Network, designed explicitly to elevate the capacity of women across the Global South to occupy and excel in public office. The carefully curated cohort brought together a diverse mix of seasoned officeholders including sitting Cabinet ministers, elected parliamentarians, municipal mayors, regional governors, and senate members, alongside high-potential emerging young women leaders with demonstrated commitment to public service.
The academy’s intensive, targeted curriculum was structured to equip participants with tangible, actionable skills to strengthen their political leadership trajectories, with specialized training modules covering core domains including public governance frameworks, strategic public and stakeholder communication, cross-sector coalition building, transparent and ethical political financing, values-driven ethical leadership, and sustainable public institutional development.
Reflecting on her transformative experience following the graduation, Minister Jawahir shared that the immersive program deepened her recognition of the profound shared historical ties and longstanding collective struggles that bind women of African descent across the Caribbean and the African continent. “As a Caribbean woman of African descent holding a senior political leadership role, this experience has given me a far richer, more layered understanding of our shared history, our shared battles for equity, and the remarkable, underutilized power women hold to drive meaningful, lasting societal transformation,” Jawahir stated.
She emphasized that the privilege of representing her home nation of Saint Lucia in the pioneering program carried a profound responsibility beyond personal achievement, noting that the expertise and cross-regional professional networks she built over the course of the academy would be deployed to expand pathways for future generations of women and girls in her home country and across the wider region. “I feel immense honor to have carried Saint Lucia’s flag as one of just two Caribbean women selected for this inaugural cohort,” Jawahir added. “As I mark this personal milestone, I am acutely aware that this journey was never just about my own growth. It is about leveraging every bit of new knowledge, every new cross-continental connection, and every lesson I learned here to pry open new doors, create tangible opportunities, and carve out more space for the women and young girls who will step into leadership roles after me.”