Jamaica-born professor emeritus Norman Girvan, one of the region’s most renowned economists, passed away yesterday, according to a brief statement from the University of the West Indies. Girvan, who was born in 1941, was until recently a professorial research fellow at the Institute of International Relations at the St Augustine Campus of the University of the West Indies.
In 2010, he was appointed as the United Nations Secretary General’s personal representative on the Guyana-Venezuela border controversy. Since 2009 he has been a member of the United Nations Committee on Development Policy. He also served as secretary general of the Association of Caribbean States, professor of development studies and director of the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies at the University of the West Indies, and head of the National Planning Agency of the Government of Jamaica.
Professor Girvan has published extensively on the political economy of development in the Caribbean and the Global South. He was the recipient of several honours and awards. Funeral arrangements are to be announced.