NASSAU, Bahamas, March 9, 2023 — British High Commissioner Tom Hartley and his wife Jennie hosted as group of prominent Bahamian women for dinner at their residence on International Women’s Day, Wednesday, March 8.
Guests included Anne Marie Davis, wife of Prime Minister Philip E. Davis; Terez Curry, President of the Bahamas Red Cross; Kim Aranha, President of the Bahamas Humane Society; Nicola Virgill Rolle, Lyford Cay Foundation; Shelagh Pritchard; Sandra Dean Patterson, founder of the Bahamas Crisis Centre; Anastarcia Star Palacious; and a UK High Commission team that included Vanessa Bootle Jones, Julia Roberts, Nikoya Lightbourne, and Mona Lisa.
“I was inspired to meet this group of leaders who are demonstrating how women are at the forefront of building a better Bahamas,” High Commissioner Hartley said. “Focused particularly in the volunteering sector, it was humbling to hear of the groups’ work to support the most vulnerable in society.”
He added, “This year the British High Commission is committed to building stronger links between The Bahamas and the UK in the fields of education, industry, and sport, and we discussed how we can use this momentum to support communities in The Bahamas too, such as through apprenticeships in UK companies investing in The Bahamas, more scholarships to British universities, and grants for young people wanting to learn to sail. We will deliver this.”
The celebration was hosted as the British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly launches the UK’s new International Women and Girl’s Strategy. This is the first international Women and Girls Strategy that brings together all the UK’s development and diplomacy work, and commits that at least 80% of FCDO bilateral Official Development Assistance (ODA) programmes targets gender equality as a policy objective by 2030.
The strategy aims to tackle increasing threats to gender equality from climate change, humanitarian crises, conflicts such as the war in Ukraine, and recent attempts to roll back women’s rights, including in countries like Iran and Afghanistan. The Foreign Secretary also announces a new emphasis on supporting grassroots women’s rights organisations, and funding for a Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights programme that will support an estimated 10 million women worldwide.
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said: “Advancing gender equality and challenging discrimination is obviously the right thing to do, but it also brings freedom, boosts prosperity and trade, and strengthens security – it is the fundamental building block of all healthy democracies.
“Our investment to date has improved lives around the world, with more girls in school, fewer forced into early marriage and more women in top political and leadership roles.
“But these hard-won gains are now under increasing threat. We’re ramping up our work to tackle the inequalities which remain, at every opportunity.”
