As regional and global concerns mount over Cuba’s deepening socio-economic struggles, the University of the West Indies (UWI) is stepping into a leading role to unpack the crisis and mobilize collective support for the Caribbean nation. The institution has announced two key initiatives: a high-profile Vice-Chancellor’s Forum dedicated to analyzing Cuba’s current challenges, and a university-wide humanitarian campaign to gather essential supplies for Cuban communities.
Scheduled for Thursday, June 25, 2026, the hybrid forum titled “Perspectives on the Current Cuban Crisis: Issues, Impact, and Imperatives” will kick off at 11:00 AM Eastern Caribbean/Atlantic Standard Time (10:00 AM Jamaica local time). The in-person portion of the event will be held at the Eon Nigel Harris Council Room within UWI’s Regional Headquarters in Kingston, Jamaica, with a free global live stream hosted on UWItv to enable participation from audiences across the Caribbean and beyond.
Cuba currently faces a cascade of interconnected socio-economic headwinds: widespread shortages of basic necessities, chronic energy infrastructure disruptions, and sustained macroeconomic pressures that have rippled across the entire Caribbean region. These challenges unfold against a complex backdrop of strained international relations, ongoing domestic policy reforms, long-standing global trade restrictions, shifting tourism trends, and growing migration pressures that make Cuba’s trajectory a critical concern for the entire Caribbean community.
As the Caribbean’s preeminent regional research and public engagement institution, UWI has positioned itself to foster evidence-based understanding of the crisis, rather than letting it go undiscussed. In addition to the upcoming policy forum, the university has launched the “One-UWI Humanitarian Effort,” a four-week initiative running throughout June that mobilizes staff, students, alumni, and institutional partners across all UWI campuses to raise funds for purchasing urgently needed essential supplies for Cuba.
The forum is a collaborative effort organized by the Vice-Chancellor’s Office, in partnership with the Office of the Board for Undergraduate Studies, the Latin American-Caribbean Centre, and the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies. It will assemble a cross-functional panel of leading regional and international experts, spanning academia, diplomacy, and public policy, to examine every dimension of the crisis: its root causes, the scale of its impact, the Cuban government’s existing response frameworks, potential new policy pathways, implications for CARICOM and global diplomatic relations, and actionable opportunities for regional cooperation and targeted support.
The event will open with formal remarks from Professor Sir Hilary Beckles and Her Excellency Tania López Larroque, with the expert panel featuring Jessica Byron-Reid, Bert Hoffmann, Andy Knight, Miriam Nicado, and Indira Rampersad. Co-moderation duties will be split between Canute S. Thompson and Don D. Marshall, while Gillian Bristol, Strategic Coordinator of the UWI Multilingual Culture Programme, will serve as chair of the live gathering.
UWI’s Vice-Chancellor’s Forum series has built a 10+ year track record as a trusted platform for rigorous public debate on the most pressing regional and international issues. Under the leadership of Sir Hilary Beckles, the series has consistently connected leading scholars, policymakers, and practicing experts to confront the social, economic, political, and developmental challenges shaping the Caribbean and the wider world.
UWI has urged all interested members of the public to access the live discussion via the UWItv official website or regional Flow television channels. The event is designed to deliver timely, data-driven analysis, encourage constructive cross-stakeholder engagement, and advance collaborative solutions to one of the most urgent issues facing the Caribbean region today.