Carolyn Allison Rodrigues-Birkett (born 16 September 1973) is a Guyanese politician and former foreign minister who has served as her country's Permanent Representative to the United Nations since 2020.
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Early life and education
Rodrigues was born on 16 September 1973 to an Arawak Amerindian family in Santa Rosa in the Barima-Waini region of Guyana. After growing up in a home without running water or electricity, studying with the help of an oil lamp, she attended a private school in Georgetown and later received a scholarship for Amerindians that enabled her to study business administration at the University of Regina in Canada.
Career
Early career
Rodrigues returned to Guyana in 1993 and began working for a lumber company. Under the terms of her scholarship, she was required to work for Amerindian communities, and found employment with the Inter-American Development Bank's social impact amelioration programme, despite a 65% decrease in salary. She coordinated an Amerindian projects programme until 2001, when she enrolled at the University of Guyana to study social work.
Politics
In April 2001 Rodrigues was appointed to the Cabinet as Minister of Amerindian Affairs, and was reappointed to the role following the 2006 general election, serving until January 2008. In April of that year she became Minister of Foreign Affairs, serving until the People's Progressive Party lost the general election in May 2015. She was subsequently offered a place on the party's parliamentary list, but declined to take a seat in the National Assembly
International career
In August 2017 Rodrigues was appointed Director of the Food and Agriculture Organization's liaison office with the United Nations in Geneva, serving in that role until 2020 when she became her country's Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York.
On 15 June 2026, the Guyanese government nominated Rodrigues as a candidate in the 2026 United Nations Secretary-General selection.