First Caribbean Candidate Runs for UN Secretary General — SkimNews
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- Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett became the first Caribbean candidate to run for UN Secretary General this summer, with full endorsement from the Caribbean Community (Caricom) confirmed at their July summit.
- She placed second among seven candidates in the latest UN Security Council straw poll with 9 "encourage" votes, 2 "discourage" and 4 "no opinion," trailing Costa Rica's Rebeca Grynspan; the next poll is scheduled for later this month.
- Born in the Arawak Indigenous village of Santa Rosa, Guyana, she grew up without running water or electricity and studied by oil lamp, then became Guyana's minister of Amerindian affairs at 27.
- If elected, she would be the first woman to hold the post in its 80-year history, which has seen nine male secretaries general.
- Her stated priority is climate financing, citing the UN's Loss and Damage Fund distributing only $19m over 16 years while Jamaica alone suffered $10bn in damage from Hurricane Melissa last October.
- She would also inherit a wider portfolio of active conflicts in Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, Myanmar and Haiti — the largest number since WWII — and rising polarization over issues like slavery reparations.
- Informal regional rotation means the Caribbean would wait 40-plus years for another shot at the post if this bid fails.
Why it matters: The Caribbean has gone 80 years without a UN Secretary General, and Rodrigues-Birkett's second-place straw poll finish plus Caricom's unanimous endorsement makes her a live contender rather than a token candidate. Her climate-finance platform responds to a documented funding gap: the Loss and Damage Fund has paid out $19m over 16 years against Jamaica's $10bn Hurricane Melissa damage alone, meaning she would target a system delivering roughly pennies on the dollar to vulnerable states.
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