UWI To Confer Honorary Doctorate On Former Jamaica Prime Minister, Portia Simpson Miller

KINGSTON, Jamaica, September 19, 2017 (CMC) – Jamaica’s immediate-past Prime Minister, Portia Simpson Miller, will be conferred with a Honorary Degree of Doctor of Laws (LLD) from the University of the West Indies (UWI), during an official ceremony on September 30.

The university says the degree is being conferred, in recognition of Simpson Miller’s “outstanding and meritorious contribution to public life, and of her phenomenal achievements as a woman, from the working class community who, without the privileges of wealth, colour, class and respected profession, overcame those obstacles and emerged as the first female Prime Minister of Jamaica”.

Simpson Miller served as the seventh Prime Minister of Jamaica, from 2006-2007 and 2012-2016. She was also the recipient of the Jamaican Order of the Nation in 2006.

“As Prime Minister, she emphasised her commitment to regional integration and cooperation. During her tenure, she used her considerable political and social skills to harness international and domestic support for the stabilisation and growth of the Jamaican economy,” the UWI said in a statement.

The former Prime Minister is a member of the Council of Women World Leaders — which is an international network of current and former women Presidents and Prime Ministers — whose mission is to advance women’s issues.

The ceremony will be held at the UWI’s Mona Campus.