Pennelope Beckles: The quintessential diplomat

Being a diplomat isn’t all glitz and glamour. As TT’s permanent representative to the UN, Ambassador Pennelope Beckles well knows that even cocktail parties are work.

“It’s really a lot of networking and a continuation of your work. As you get there, people are waiting to engage you, whether it’s about a candidature or a resolution.

"There’s very little time for what people might think actually happens, like eating and drinking,” Beckles told WMN during a recent interview at TT’s permanent mission to the UN in New York.

Beckles has been in the post for just over three years, and during her time, she’s made a name for herself as a dynamic force within the UN, flying the TT flag high in a number of high-profile roles, including president of UN Women for the last year (her term ends in December) and as one of the vice-presidents of the 74th General Assembly, chairing two sessions during the General Debates last week.

She even represented the Caribbean in a UN charity football tournament, holding her own as the only female player against some legends of the game – and scoring a goal – as she helped her team to a third-place finish.

In assuming her role as permanent representative, Beckles knew it would be hard work, but came in with an open mind and a willingness to learn.

“I did just about every little course that has been offered here. There’s an organisation called UNITAR ((UN Institute for Training and Research) that trains diplomats. I got here and you realise you have these options. Not a lot of ambassadors attend, but I made sure I went, because it really helped me to understand. They train you in diplomacy, in negotiations,
every single resolution dealt with, (if you need) UNITAR would give you some follow-up training.”

As a former government minister, she previously represented TT at various meetings on issues including women’s and children’s rights, sanitation, forests and environmental policy.

That helped orient her, but, she said, “The truth is, unlike the foreign service officers who have their degrees in international affairs, you are coming into an institution where you have to do a lot of learning, you have to keep an open mind and you have to learn very fast.”

Her legal background, and of course, her time in the Parliament and Cabinet, including stints as a minister of social development and minister of the environment, have been fundamental to her knowledge and understanding of a lot of the topics she has had to deal with at the UN.

She’s also grateful for the staff at the mission, many of whom are young and dedicated.

“I’m very fortunate here. (The staff) are very good and energetic and always willing to go the extra mile. Because here you have no hours – it’s not a nine-to-five job. You have to work on the weekends sometimes, and during the General Assembly (debates) or resolutions it’s very long hours, because here it’s about consensus, and once you have to arrive at consensus (meetings) can go on and on.”

Beckles is also quick to acknowledge the strong foundation of the diplomats before her, including former prime minister and president ANR Robinson, whose work at the UN has given TT a highly respected reputation.

Beckles isn’t the only impressive TT woman representing the country at the UN. Earlier this year, Justice Eleanor Donaldson-Honeywell was appointed to the bench of the ICC; Dr Wanda Lee Clarke, a geophysicist and lawyer, is the first woman to sit on the Commission for the Limits of the Continental Shelf; and Prof Rhoda Reddock received the highest number of votes when she was appointed to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women.

“As a small mission, I think we are doing very well. I think a lot of has to do with developing your expertise as well as leadership. I mean, (other countries) do seek us out. Once you have people who have a reputation, they expect something will happen. I will tell you, for example, when we nominated Dr Clarke and Prof Reddock as candidates, the comment was always that whenever Trinidad submits a candidate, we submit good candidates. So that in essence gives you a head start, if that’s how people feel. So when we go campaigning they do believe we actually put forward people who will make a good contribution.”

Beckles's own appointment as president of UN Women last year wasn’t a contested election – it’s a rolling position where each year the president is chosen from a different area – but she did still need to get the endorsement from the group to which TT belongs, Latin America and the Caribbean. She is, however, the first woman from Caricom to hold the post.

During her tenure, she became the first UN Women president to visit the Caribbean region, including TT, Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, Barbados and Colombia, meeting with activists and heads of state and government in those countries.

“(The role of) president, it’s really about leadership. It’s a big organisation with thousands of staff from all over the world. I think the biggest thing for me was the recognition of the amount of work that UN Women does.”

Leading the organisation is particularly resonant for Beckles. As a young woman in the 1990s she was again the first from the Caribbean to receive a Women in Leadership scholarship from UN Women’s predecessor, UNIFEM, as a woman in politics to study at the prestigious Yale University in Connecticut.

“To have been a beneficiary of the institution and then to lead the institution: I think that is special.”

While UN Women is integral to promote policy and legislation around the world on issues related to women, including domestic violence, entrepreneurship and access to financing, Beckles’s particular interest has been to promote women in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and women in sport, because, as an avid sportswoman herself (as evidenced by her football skills), especially while she was in school, she believes sport helps women build confidence, ultimately creating better and stronger leaders.

“It’s focusing on what you can do to help girls develop in terms of ideas and dreams, issues of mentorship and those who have been successful, and I think that’s a great honour.”

Beckles does not take her position as a role model lightly.

“You look at your own personal achievements. I grew up in the country (Borde Narve in South Trinidad) and I have never hesitated to say that until I was a teenager, I didn’t have running water. So, you let people know things are possible.”

She participates in a New York Mayor’s Office programme in which ambassadors at the UN are invited to challenged communities to share their experiences, and recently, on a trip back home, she made a donation to a young woman from her area who was about to study medicine.

“It’s always good to tell a story where you might be able to inspire. It’s those little things when you can find ways to relate to young people with what you are saying and it becomes relevant.”

So what’s the best part of being TT’s UN Ambassador?

“Just representing TT. I think all of us here, when you sit behind the plate marked TT, it’s special. Whether it is at the mission, if you’re in government, in sports, even when we go in different places on training and you have that nameplate with TT and that opportunity to represent your country, I think that’s second to none.”