Dr Henry Wallice CHARLES

Henry Wallice Charles is an Internationally recognized Youth and Policy Development Expert, with over 30 years of experience. He currently serves as the Lead Consultant for the Caribbean Development Bank’s first Youth Policy and Operational Strategy. He is a founding member of the Saint Lucia National Youth Council and served as Public Relations Officer and Vice president, respectively between 1985-1991. He is also a founding member and served as Secretary/Treasurer of the Caribbean Federation of Youth (CFY) from 1987-1989. He is a member of the University of the West Indies Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies (SALISES)50/50 Youth Research Cluster. He also serves as a member of the Advisory Board for the Caribbean Regional Youth Council. Mr. Charles is a former Regional Director of the Commonwealth Youth Programme-Caribbean Centre (2005-2011) as well as former Interim Director of the Youth Affairs Division of the Commonwealth Secretariat in London. Mr. Charles is a PhD in Social Policy candidate (submitted) at SALISES, UWI St. Augustine. His thesis is on “The Socio-political Context of Youth and Policy Development in the Caribbean.” He has provided technical support to several Caribbean governments and youth development stakeholders on youth and policy development strategy. He has authored and presented several academic and technical papers on youth empowerment, youth participation, the socio-political context of youth development, youth governance, youth economic empowerment and the professionalization of youth development work. Additionally, he has undertaken and contributed to several youth development initiatives in the Caribbean, including a mapping of best practices in youth engagement for UNDP Barbados and the OECS in 2012, being part of a multi-disciplinary team that undertook an assessment of the youth development situation in the Eastern and Southern Caribbean, on behalf of USAID; review of Grenada and Dominica’s National Youth Policies; facilitating Anguilla’s 8th National Youth Development Conference; conducting an institutional review of the Division of youth affairs and formulating of a youth development strategy for the Tobago House of Assembly; developing course outline and modules for the MSc in Child and Youth Studies for the Department of Behavioral Sciences at UWI St. Augustine; instructional designer for three of the BSc in Youth Development Work courses. Mr Charles was Chief of Party for a USAID Funded assessment of the Youth Development situation in Haiti (2016-2017). He is a part-time lecturer for both the M.Ed. Youth Guidance and MSc Child and Youth Studies at UWI St. Augustine Campus. He also served as a member of the Caribbean Development Bank-Youth Policy and Strategy Reference Group.