The recently concluded Anguilla Country Conference 2017 is being hailed as a national success. Under the theme “Anguilla: The Unfinished Revolution? Considering Nation Building and Self-Determination”, the April 19th – 21st Conference attracted some twenty-three papers from local, regional and international presenters and was streamed live around the world.
Keynote speaker, Dr. Carlyle G. Corbin, set the tone on the opening night with his challenge to continue the quest for self-determination – and this theme of national stock-taking was echoed in the seven panels sessions over the remaining two days. Some twenty-seven researchers delivered twenty-three well-researched papers on Decolonisation, Self-Determination, Commerce, Finance, Education, Gender, the Family, Youth, the Environment, Food Security, Health, Tourism, and Culture in the context of national development. Sessions included questions and comments from the audience.
The well-attended Conference included an Opening Ceremony/Cocktails hosted by the Honourable Minister for Home Affairs and Education, and a Reception/Youth/Poetry Night at Government House. The Anguilla Library Service also mounted an Exhibition on the Revolution at the Conference venue.
An initiative of the University of the West Indies (UWI) Open Campus, Country Conferences are held in non-campus territories of the UWI and are designed to stimulate and highlight research on the host country and provide tools for national development. The local UWI branch partnered with the Anguilla Community College, and other stakeholders, to host the 2017 Anguilla Conference as part of the activities marking the 50th Anniversary of the Anguilla Revolution.
Speaking at the closing ceremony on Friday, April 21st, Manager of the UWI Open Campus British Overseas Territories and Chairperson of the Organising Committee, Dr. Phyllis Fleming-Banks, said that the Committee was extremely pleased by the national response to the Conference. “There was collaboration and support from all levels and sectors, and for this we are very grateful because, at this critical juncture in our development, it will take our combined energies and efforts to chart the way forward for Anguilla,” she said. The Committee plans to have the papers published and to use them as catalysts to continue the discussions on national development.
The Committee thanks its partners and all those who supported the Conference, including the Government of Anguilla (Ministry of Home Affairs/Education, Ministry of Finance), platinum sponsor – the Anguilla Social Security Board, the Anguilla Financial Services Commission, the National Commercial Bank of Anguilla, the Anguilla Development Board, La Vue, the Governor’s Office, the Anguilla Library Service, Flow, GAF, Royal Party Rentals, the Agricultural Department, ATV Channel 3, Lloyd Gumbs Photography, The Anguillian newspaper, Radio Anguilla, Klass FM, Up Beat Radio, Kool FM, the AHTA, ACOCI, Dr. Carlyle Corbin, Mrs. Joyce Kentish-Egan, QC, Rev. Dr. Wycherley Gumbs, Mayoumba, The Malliouhana Poetry Committee, Mr. Vanburn Brookes, the ALHCS Choir, the ALHCS Steel Pan Orchestra, DITES/Mr. Rudy Webster, all 27 Presenters, Panel Chairs – Mr. Stanley Reid, Mr. Lonnie Hobson, Mrs. Rita Celestine-Carty, Mr. Lenox Proctor, Mr. Calvin Andre Samuel, Dr. Page Edgar and Ms. Carla Harris, Rapporteurs – Ms. Yanique Stewart, Ms. Farrah Banks and Ms. Felicia Hennis, the UWI Open Campus Guild of Students and all the participants who attended and supported the Conference.
– Contributed
