NWC’s Ann-Marie Williams Headed for CARICOM Post

Ann-Marie Williams

Ann-Marie Williams is moving on up. She is leaving her Executive Director position with the National Women’s Commission (NWC) for a regional job. Williams is heading to the CARICOM Secretariat to serve as the Deputy Program Manager for Gender and Development. She is finishing off her work at the NWC after having resigned a few weeks ago. She says that she is excited to be taking up the new post in Guyana and is confident that she can make an impact on gender related matters in the region.

Ann-Marie Williams, Executive Director, NWC

“This is something I have always wanted – to work regionally and internationally-and to work in this area, gender and development, which I am trained in; which is my passion; which I do day to day; how wonderful and how else can that be?  Who among us gets the opportunity to do that things that they really want to do. I consider myself very honored and humbled.   It is an exciting challenge to not only do something at the local level when you are in Belize but to get the ability to coordinate and mobilize regionally, it could create a real impact. So, we will be looking at coordination; the same thing I’ve been doing here – bring the different women machineries together in the Caribbean ahead of the SDGs and Goal 5 which is very important. We will be looking at some gender mainstreaming projects, gender budgeting and we will be looking at several projects that we will need to take on in the Caribbean with much urgency. And trust me, Belize will be the beneficiary. Because a lot of times in CARICOM, you have Belize and Guyana as the two mainland territories and sometimes, I feel, that a lot of the small island developing states tend to be closer together and benefit more from CARICOM, particularly in gender equality. So, I am planning to change that.”