beverleymanley.com

1994      Gender Consultant with United Nations Research Institute for Development (UNRISD):

                   a)   Carrying out research and organising Workshop for Senior Policy-makers and researchers in the Public Sector on Gender Considerations in Policy Design - including (Gender Industrialisation  and Export Promotion)

                   b)   Supervisor of Briefing Paper on Gender and Export in Jamaica

1994/95   A. Gender Consultant with Inter-American Development Bank (IDB):

                   a)   Jamaica: Twelve-month consultancy with the Bureau of Women's Affairs (Jamaica) to carry out institutional strengthening for the Bureau.  The consultancy focused on the following areas:

                             i)   Gender and Policy - training of senior policy makers in the public sector (Permanent Secretaries and Senior Project Officers)

                             ii)  Women in Export Production: training for women already involved in the export sector

                             iii) preparation of videos (a) Gender Considerations in Policy Design and (b) Women in Export  Production); as well as preparation of a Gender Training Manual; and a series of training of trainers workshops on  Gender and Policy

                   B.   Suriname: - consulting  with Suriname Bureau of Women's Affairs   developing IDB programme for institutional strengthening of Bureau

                   C.   Barbados: (English-speaking Caribbean) - Inter-American Bank (IDB) Consultant -working with Barbados Bureau of Women's Affairs to develop programme for  institutional strengthening to be funded by IDB.

                   D.   IDB Pre-Investment Programme: short term consultancy with responsibility for ensuring that Gender issues were integrated in the project profile for the Bank's Pre-Investment Programme.

                   E.   Women in Democracy Conference (Guadalajara, Mexico, April 5 to 7, 1994) - consulting with the IDB in the organisational arrangements and preparation for the Conference; preparing Briefing Paper for Conference on Women In Democracy in the English-speaking Caribbean - as background paper for conference.

1993               WORLD BANK: presentor at seminar on Social Funds and Fund-like projects - meeting the needs of poor urban women; also prepared  Briefing Paper for Seminar on "Poverty and the Low-income organ woman in the English-speaking Caribbean - Jamaica as a case study.

1993               British Government - Guest of: itinerary included meetings with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC); the Department of Government concerned with Women's Affairs; various Women's Organisations and community groups; University of Sussex (Gender and Development Department; Officials of the British Government; RIPA International Limited - discussions on Gender and Policy and various other groups in the Communications and Gender Fields.

1994/1995               UNICEF Consultant: ongoing training workshops:

at senior policy levels

grade 9 achievement level (preparing young women and men for careers in non-traditional areas;

                   c)  preparation of gender training manual;        preparation of video, etc., re-working       of National Policy Statement on Women        and Plan of Action for Jamaica.

1994/95            CAST - College of Arts Science and Technology: Gender Consultant for the college involved in preparation of gender manual for lecturers; video on gender and education; slide shows; workshops with ancillary staff; students and  Senior Policy-makers at the CAST Council level; Writing of documents on "How to Organise a workshop". Responsible for designing, facilitating and creating appropriate handouts for all workshops.

1994/1995     Participant in UNRISD Consultation in Geneva - Advisory workshop on the UNRISD/UNDP project "Technical Co-operation and Women's Lives: Integrating Gender into Development Policy.  Participants drawn from Senior Consultants representing every region of the world – involved in research on Gender Policy issues.

1995          Fourth International Conference on Women, Beijing,China: panellist for UNESCO - High Level Debate on Gender issues with international Gender experts.

VISITING FELLOW AT UNIVERSITIES IN USA

1991      Visiting Professor Cornel University (Ithaca, New York) Researcher and teaching course on "Gender and the State - A Caribbean Perspective" to Graduate students.

1990      Distinguished Carnegie, International Fellow at Radcliffe/Har­vard University (Cambridge, Massachusetts) Research Project- "Gender and the State - A Caribbean Perspective" – discussions with Graduate Students and public lecture

1989-90   Advisor to the Minister in charge of Women's Affairs (Jamaica)

          a)   presenting the Minister with overall plans for  restruc­turing the Bureau

          b)   increasing the implementation facilities of the inter-Ministry committee (a committee consisting of persons at senior policy levels in all Government Ministries)

          c)   preparing training and development exercises for staff members

          d)   working closely with consultants from donor agencies assigned to the Bureau

          e)   assisting in the formulation of national policies

          f)   assisting women in advocacy and information

          g)   assisting in research and data collection

          h)   organizing and assisting in the creation of parish advisory committees that operated on a voluntary basis

          i)   assisting in the preparation of a five year development for women for inclusion in the national plan

          j)   working closely with all governmental agencies in helping them to understand a gender analytical framework and gender analysis

1986-88   Teaching Assistant - Howard University.  Taught introduction to Political Science; Political Theory

1985-86   Teaching Assistant - Department of Government, University of the West Indies, Kingston, Jamaica.  Taught introduction to Political Science and Modern Political Thought

Instructor - Institute of Mass Communications, University of the West Indies, Kingston, Jamaica.  Taught courses dealing with radio and television - Advertising/Public Relations techniques

1972-83   As wife of Prime Minister of Jamaica and Gender Activist, became involved with:

          the establishment of a Day Care Programme and Day Care facilities for children in Jamaica.  Also involved in provid­ing facilities for women in Jamaica generally, including the struggle for Maternity Leave with Pay Law; the changing of legislation that discriminates against women and children; the provision of a basic school (age group 3-6 years) and a Day Care Centre on the grounds of the prime Minister's official residence (Jamaica House)(1974)- Other highlights as PM’s wife – including organising a conference of first ladies during Commonwealth PM’s conference- for first ladies who were interested in wider developmental issues.

1970-71   Programme manager (Radio) - Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation.  Responsible for all radio output

1965-71   Producer/Broadcaster - Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation(JBC).  Produced and broadcast a series of programmes for women and children on television and radio.

CONFERENCES – HIGHLIGHTS:

1990-93   United Nations Commission on Women UNCSW). Delegate for Caribbean and Latin America

1989-94   Former principal delegate from Jamaica to OAS/CIM.                 Department within the Organisation of American States with responsibility for women.

1994      The Joint Committee for Tertiary Education (JCTE) - presented paper at Symposium on Gender Issues in Tertiary Education and Training.

1990      Meeting of Commonwealth Ministers of Women's Affairs, Canada

1995      Participant in UNESCO's Gender Media Seminar in preparation for Fourth International Conference on Women in Beijing, China, 1995.

1995      Panellist in Seminar, Oslo, Norway - launch - 6th Human Development Report (UNDP) - mainstreaming Gender Issues (prior to Beijing conference)

1989      Speaker, Commonwealth Finance Ministers' Meeting, Kingston, Jamaica on Gender Issues

1985      Delegate to NGO Forum, Nairobi.  End of Decade Conference

1980      Expert, Preparatory Meeting for Mid-Decade Conference on Women, Copenhagen

1976      Fifth Non-Aligned Summit, Havana.

1975      Leader, Jamaica's Delegation to International Women's Year Conference, Mexico

ORGANIZATIONAL MEMBERSHIP:

          Vice President - Third World Foundation, Chicago, Illinois, as well as Head of Women's Section.

VISITING PROFESSORSHIPS AND LECTURE TOURS NORTH AMERICA: extensive lecture tours of North America, including:

1982      WILLIAMS UNIVERSITY, New York.  Lecture

          Member of Caribbean contingent that carried out a comparative analysis of developmental models (Grenada and Jamaica)

          The lecture focused on a plan to develop that was attempted for the first time in the English speaking Caribbean, outside of the Liberal Democratic tradition. The following areas were assessed, in discussing Grenada's experiment:

          -    perspective of the "actors" inside and outside of Grenada

          -    Grenada's internal situation

          -    the New Jewel Movement - major tenets and characteristics

1981      NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY, Chicago, Illinois.  Lecture

          Distinguished International visitor for one week, during which time several lectures and workshops were carried out, mainly around the topic - The Jamaican Political Process:  The People's National Party as a case study (1981) – the role of women.  In this lecture, the decolonisation process in Jamaica provided a backdrop for exploring the Jamaican situation and the Role of Women. 

          The following major topics were discussed in light of developmental paths available to third world countries and the right of sovereign nation states to pursue paths to development in keeping with their historical, social, economic  and political heritage and the role of women.

1990      HARVARD UNIVERSITY, Cambridge, Massachusetts.  Lecture

          Women and Development in the Third World

          The lecture examined from an international perspective, women's issues and differences between first world and third world women.  The central thesis is that the women's struggle for liberation is an integral part of the wider struggle for equal rights and justice for all persons in developing nations.

1993      GOVERNOR'S STATE UNIVERSITY, Chicago, Illinois: a series of lectures on:

              a) Gender and Development - a Third World Perspective

The Development of Civil Society in the Third World.

HAVARD/RADCLIFFE/BUNTING INSTITUTE – Distinguished Carnegie International Fellow – Researching Gender and Policy issues for 6 months.

CORNELL UNIVERSITY – RESEARCH FELLOW FOR 6 MONTHS  - RESEARCHING GENDER AND POLICY ISSUES.

PUBLICATIONS: - HIGHLIGHTS

1995      Article in Essence Magazine's 25th Anniversary Issue (April, 1995)

1994      Jamaica Preparing for the Twenty-first Century - Paper on Gender Considerations in Policy Design (The Planning Institute of Jamaica) - Ian Randle, Publishers, Kingston, 1994.

1994      Gender Issues in Tertiary Education and Training (The Joint Committee for Tertiary Education)

1991      Women Transforming Societies: Sub-Saharan Africa and Caribbean Perspectives (Revised Edition, 1994) - Paper on Gender and the State - A Caribbean Perspective. Published by Harvard/Radcliffe, Boston, Massachusetts.

BROADCASTING EXPERIENCE

1960’s    Started out as a Production Assistant on Television at the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation (JBC) and then worked in different areas including producer/presenter on Radio Programmes like Jamaica Woman; the Red Stripe Club and producer presenter on Television programmes; Newscaster etc.

1992 - 2005

          Co-producer/Co-presenter of popular morning discussion programme - the Breakfast Club - a programme with a target group of policymakers and opinion makers, which examines and analyses historical and current issues at the international, regional and national levels.

          The programme is facilitated by experts throughout the world who join discussions on the telephone or in person. Among persons appearing on the programme recently - Jean Bertrand Aristide, President of Haiti; Michel Camdessus, Head of the World Bank; Jesse Jackson, African American Presidential Aspirant; Randall Robinson, Founder and Head of Transafrica in Washington; US Congressman Charles Rangel - as well as experts from Asia, Africa and the Latin American and Caribbean region.  The programme also spends a great deal of time examining gender issues: Gender and Policy; Gender and education; Gender and Health, particularly issues to do with abortion; Gender Identity; Sexual stereotyping and Sexuality.

          Currently writing Memoirs on her role as first lady in the 1970’s.with an emphasis on how Gender Issues at the personal, political and policy levels have impacted on her life.

Michael Norman Manley (December 10, 1924 – March 6, 1997) was the fifth Prime Minister of Jamaica (1972 – 1980, 1989 – 1992).

The second son of Jamaica's Premier Norman Manley, Michael Manley was a charismatic figure who became the leader of the Jamaican People's National Party a few months before his father's death in 1969.

Reforms

Manley soundly beat the unpopular incumbent Prime Minister Hugh Shearer (his cousin) in the election of 1972 after running on a platform of "better must come," giving "power to the people" and leading "a government of truth."

Manley instituted a series of socio-economic reforms that yielded mixed success. Though he was a biracial Jamaican from an elite family, Manley's successful trade union background helped him to maintain a close relationship with the country's poor, black majority, and he was a dynamic, popular leader. Unlike his father, who had a reputation for being formal and businesslike, the younger Manley moved easily among people of all strata and made Parliament accessible to the people by abolishing the requirement for men to wear jackets and ties to its sittings. In this regard he started a fashion revolution, often preferring the kariba shirt or bush jacket over a formal suit.

Diplomacy

Manley developed close friendships with several foreign leaders, foremost of whom were Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, Olof Palme of Sweden, Pierre Trudeau of Canada and Fidel Castro of Cuba. With Cuba just 145 km (90 miles) north of Jamaica, he strengthened diplomatic relations between the two island nations, much to the dismay of United States policymakers.

At the 1979 meeting of the non-aligned movement, Manley strongly pressed for the development of what was called a natural alliance between the Non-aligned movement and the Soviet Union to battle imperialism. In his speech he said, "All anti-imperialists know that the balance of forces in the world shifted irrevocably in 1917 when there was a movement and a man in the October Revolution, and Lenin was the man." Manley saw Cuba and the Cuban model as having much to offer both Jamaica and the world.

In diplomatic affairs, Manley believed in respecting the different systems of government of other countries and not interfering in their internal affairs.

Violence

Manley was the Prime Minister when Jamaica experienced a significant escalation of its political culture of violence. Supporters of his opponent Edward Seaga and the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and Manley's People's National Party (PNP) engaged in a bloody struggle which began before the 1976 election and ended when Seaga was installed as Prime Minister in 1980. While the violent political culture was not invented by Seaga or Manley, and had its roots in conflicts between the parties from as early as the beginning of the two-party system in the 1940s, political violence reached unprecedented levels in the 1970s. Indeed, the two elections accompanied by the greatest violence were those (1976 and 1980) in which Seaga was trying to unseat Manley.

Violence flared in January 1976 in anticipation of elections. A State of Emergency was declared by Manley's party the PNP in June and 500 people, including some prominent members of the JLP, were accused of trying to overthrow the government and were detained, without charges, in a specially created prison at the Up-Park Camp military headquarters [1]. Elections were held on 15 December that year, while the state of emergency was still in effect. The PNP was returned to office. The State of Emergency continued into the next year. Extraordinary powers granted the police by the Suppression of Crime Act of 1974 continued to the end of the 1980s.

Violence continued to blight political life in the 1970s. Gangs armed by both parties fought for control of urban constituencies. In the election year of 1980 around 800 Jamaicans were killed. While the murder rate in Jamaica has long been high, Jamaicans were particularly shocked by the violence at that time.

In the 1980 elections, Seaga's JLP won and he became Prime Minister.

Opposition

As Leader of the Opposition Manley became an outspoken critic of the new conservative administration. He strongly opposed intervention in Grenada after Prime Minister Maurice Bishop was overthrown and executed. Immediately after committing Jamaican troops to Ronald Reagan's invasion of Grenada in 1983, Seaga called a snap election – two years early – on the pretext that Dr Paul Robertson, General Secretary of the PNP, had called for his resignation. Manley, who may have been taken by surprise by the maneuver, led his party in a boycott of the elections, and so the Jamaica Labour Party won all seats in parliament against only marginal opposition in six of the sixty electoral constituencies.

During his period of opposition in the 1980s, Manley, a compelling speaker, travelled extensively, speaking to audiences around the world. He taught a graduate seminar and gave a series of public lectures at Columbia University in New York.

In the 1980s a Judicial Enquiry, the Smith Commission, was held on the 1976 State of Emergency. Manley admitted that he declared it on evidence that was manufactured to help him win the forthcoming election.

In 1986 Manley travelled to Britain and visited Birmingham. He attended a number of venues including the Afro Caribbean Resource Centre in Winson Green and Digbeth Civic Hall. The mainly black audiences turned out en masse to hear Manley speak.

Re-election

By 1989 Manley had softened his socialist rhetoric, explicitly advocating a role for private enterprise. With the fall of the Soviet Union, he also ceased his support for a variety of international causes. In the election of that year he campaigned on a very moderate platform. Seaga's administration had fallen out of favor – both with the electorate and the US – and the PNP was re-elected handily.

Manley's second term was short and largely uneventful. In 1992, citing health reasons he stepped down as Prime Minister and PNP leader. His former Deputy Prime Minister, Percival Patterson, assumed both offices.

Retirement and death

Manley wrote seven books, including the award-winning A History of West Indies Cricket, in which he discussed the links between cricket and West Indian nationalism.

Michael Manley died on 6 March 1997, the same day as another Caribbean politician, Cheddi Jagan of Guyana.
 

This former first lady of Jamaica offers an eclectic and rich combination of talents, competencies and extraordinary experiences.

As political scientist, she has been a Visiting Professor at several Universities in the United States.  She is also a Policy Analyst and Gender Specialist.

Her ongoing research at Howard, Cornell, Harvard and other Universities, concentrates on Gender and Policy issues in the Caribbean.

For years, she co-produced and co-host the award-winning, one-of-a-kind news and analysis programme "Breakfast Club" on Jamaican radio.

Since the 1990s Beverley Manley's special interest has been researching the field of human behaviour and has since then led many successful training and development workshops as a Transformation Trainer and Coach.  Simultaneously, she continues to hone her training skills through participation in cutting edge transformation workshops and seminars at the global level.  Committed to possibility thinking, she continues to lead transformation conversations in organizations across the Caribbean and at the international level.

Beverly Manley is an authentic and spiritual woman whose life-changing, multi-dimensional experiences and extensive activities have tranformed her life and the lives of others.  It is the 'no holds barred' sharing of these experiences and insights that inspire individuals to transform themselves.

They, therefore, begin to take responsibility for their actions.  "I am accountable" Value is created for both the individual and the organization.  This has a direct impact on the bottom line.