Baroness Valerie Amos, the distinguished British politician who was born in Guyana, was conferred with an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Guyana (UG) on Friday and used the occasion to urge Guyanese youth to help solve the big problems around the world.
“Politically and economically, the spheres of power are shifting, there are conflicts everywhere inside countries and across country boundaries. We have a climate emergency.
“We’re not leaving you a great legacy, but believe you me, I think you can fix it,” the Baroness said during the convocation ceremony on Friday.
Aside from her focus on youth, the Baroness said Guyana has always been a producer of leaders and now is no different.
She believes the country should leverage all of its resources, be it the people here, the culture, language, the arts and values instilled here, to be a model for the rest of the world.
According to the University of Guyana, Baroness Amos is the first woman of African Caribbean descent to serve in a British Cabinet and as Leader of the House of Lords (2003–07).
Baroness Amos worked initially for Local Governments in London and then from 1989 to 1994, headed the Equal Opportunities Commission. In August 1997, she was made a life peer by the then Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Baroness Amos served as the government’s spokesperson for social security, international development and women’s issues (1998-2001), a Minister in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office with responsibility for Sub-Saharan Africa, the Caribbean, Britain’s Overseas Territories, and the Commonwealth, Consular and Personnel Affairs. In May 2003, Baroness Amos was appointed International Development Secretary, thus becoming the first black woman to serve in a British Cabinet.
Following the death of Lord Williams of Mostyn in September 2003, Amos was named Leader of the House of Lords and Lord President of the Council, a post she held until 2007.
She later served as British High Commissioner to Australia (2009–10) and as head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (2010–15).
She became Director of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London. In 2015 and 2019, she was elected to become Master at the University College, Oxford, becoming the first woman to hold the post and the first black person to head a college at the University of Oxford.
Baroness Amos sits on a number of international foundation boards including the MasterCard Foundation, UN Foundation and International Peace Institute.
Baroness Amos is the first person of colour to be appointed as a Companion (Knight or Lady) to the Garter. (Haile Selassie I, the late Emperor of Ethiopia, was a royal member of the Order) and was installed in June 2022.
The Order of the Garter is the oldest and most senior Order of Chivalry in Britain, established by King Edward III nearly 700 years ago. The Order includes The King, who is Sovereign of the Garter, several senior Members of the Royal Family, and twenty-four Knights or Ladies chosen in recognition of their work.
