Dr. Denzil Douglas, Prime Minister, Federation of St. Kitts & Nevis (1995 – 2015), was born in the rural village of St. Pauls in the then-British West Indian Colony of St. Kitts, Nevis & Anguilla, in 1953.
Raised in an environment of exquisite natural beauty, his childhood was one shaped by towering mountain peaks; verdant, graceful foothills; and the sparkling azure sea. Daily family worship, a supportive extended family, and the warm cohesion of the St. Pauls community constituted the cornerstone of his upbringing.
Yet all around him was the societal harshness of that era. With a secondary education resolutely denied to 98% of the colony’s children, his outstanding intellectual gifts won him a most rare and life-altering secondary school scholarship. There, he dreamed of becoming a lawyer, but with law school scholarships unavailable to him, he accepted the one scholarship that was available – in the sciences. Having performed brilliantly at university, he earned his B.Sc in 1977 and his M.D. in 1984, both from the University of the West Indies. He then returned to St. Kitts and established his medical practice.
Reared in the youth arm of Labour, Denzil Douglas became the first youth representative of the St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party to sit on the party’s National Executive in 1979. He was elected Deputy Leader of the Party in 1987, elected to Parliament in 1989, elected National Party Leader in that year, and was appointed Leader of his country’s Parliamentary Opposition in that year as well. He immediately set out to restructure and re-energize then-fractured St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party, leading his party to a decisive electoral victory in 1995.
Denzil Douglas served as Prime Minister of St. Kitts & Nevis from 1995 until 2015.
As Prime Minister, he played an active leadership role in the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States, the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank, the Caribbean Community, the Caribbean Development Bank, the Association of Caribbean States, the Organisation of American States, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, The Commonwealth, and the United Nations.
The Douglas Administration’s programs and policies were hailed by global leaders and international financial institutions alike:
As a result of his leadership, the national debt of St. Kitts-Nevis was slashed dramatically; foreign investment poured into the country at levels that far surpassed that of other countries in the region; the country led the region in economic growth; tourism, international trade and commerce expanded significantly; investment in housing, health and education reached unprecedented levels; and there were major expansions of air and seaports, and nation’s physical infrastructure. Because of his outstanding performance in the area of debt management, Prime Minister Douglas was asked by The Commonwealth to lead a Commonwealth delegation in the Commonwealth’s presentations to an international financial institution summit in Washington DC on the financial prospects and challenges of small states. He was publicly credited by President Bill Clinton for having outlined to Presidents Clinton and Mandela the opportunities for expanded collaboration in the global fight against HIV-AIDs.