Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Dominica
The Hon. Roosevelt Skerrit has been Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Dominica since 2004, reappointed for a 4th term in office on December 17, 2019. He is concurrently, the Minister of Finance and Investments and previously held portfolios to include Education, Housing, National Security and the Public Service. Skerrit has served as the Parliamentary Representative of the Vieille Case Constituency since 2000. Skerrit, as Prime Minister, has been at the forefront of Caribbean leadership, serving as Chair of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) during periods of historic fiscal and economic challenges faced by the region and the world. He contributed to the formulation of the eight-point stabilization programme of the OECS. As leader of the first English-speaking and Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country to join the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of our Americas (ALBA), in 2008, Skerrit is recognized for helping to foster closer ties between CARICOM states and countries of Latin America. He is an ardent advocate of wider regional integration and has worked towards the deepening of cooperation with the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CLAS). Skerrit grabbed the attention of world leaders in 2017 at the United Nations General Assembly when he declared the intention to make Dominica the first climate resilient nation in the world, following the devastation of Hurricane Maria. Mr. Skerrit holds a Bachelor’s (Honors) degree in Psychology (B.Sc.) and English (BA) from the University of Mississippi, Ole Miss, Oxford, Mississippi. Before his entry into politics he was a lecturer of English at the Dominica State College. He was born in the village of Vieille Case in 1972.