PM’s wife heads office she previously questioned

Despite questioning the need for an Office of the Spouse of the Prime Minister when it was first introduced in 2018, Ann Marie Davis, wife of Prime Minister Philip Brave Davis, will head the office.

A photo shared by Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell shows Davis meeting with the leadership of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Monday. The office falls under the purview of the ministry.

“Mrs. Ann Marie Davis visits the Office of the Spouse mandated by CARICOM for all countries across the region,” the post said.

In 2018, shortly after the office was set up under the Minnis administration, Davis told The Guardian that she was not convinced that there needed to be an Office of the Spouse.

“I have been very involved in charities, and the extent of the involvement is very far-reaching, and I haven’t yet seen the need to have an office to carry out those functions,” she said at the time.  

“Having said that, I don’t know … how the role of that office that Mrs. Minnis is referring to, how that role would be defined [and] whether it will be a crossover to social services because some of what Mrs. Minnis said is what I know social services to be involved with.”

Patricia Minnis, wife of former prime minister Dr. Hubert Minnis, headed the office between 2018 and 2021.

Davis said if Minnis asked for her help, she was “ready and willing to take this Bahamas as far [as we can] and make it as better as we can”. 

“I really don’t want to crossover into social services because social services has to represent the country at a government level,” she said.

“So, to have an office with that type of role, you have to represent the country at international levels; [you] may do reports from the NGOs at an international level; there is a lot more involved and there are different stages.

“We have to see how it’s going to be laid out and set out.” 

At the time, former Minister of Foreign Affairs Darren Henfield said the office would help to bring more focus to issues such as promoting the health and well-being of adolescents in the Caribbean and reducing adolescent pregnancy; expounding on the prevention of various forms of cancer that are prevalent among women; encouraging the elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, and congenital syphilis in the region, and more.

The office received $16,000 in the latest budget.

In 2018, Englerston MP Glenys Hanna-Martin said that while she supports advocacy for women to make greater strides, she questioned what the office’s objective will be and what benefits it will have locally.

“I note that Mrs. Minnis indicated that she’ll be utilizing current resources that already exist, but I think that it still has to be a quantification whether it’s using resources that are being redirected or whatever it is,” Hanna Martin said.

“We have to have an understanding of what is comprised in this office.” 

In December, 2017, Minnis told attendees at a luncheon hosted for spouses of senior government officials that she had submitted a proposal for an Office of the Spouse of the Prime Minister to Cabinet.

There was no indication at the time by Minnis or Henfield that the office was “mandated by CARICOM”. 

The Nassau Guardian spoke with officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday who indicated that the office was based on a CARICOM decision.

The Spouses of CARICOM Leaders Action Network (SCLAN) said: “The establishment of the office was based upon a CARICOM decision in fulfilling the mandate for support of women and advancement of specific initiatives (including the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals) of various regional and international organizations.”

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source https://thenassauguardian.com/pms-wife-heads-office-she-previously-questioned/