Jamaica has won the 2023 Junior Chamber International (JCI) World Debate Championship, held in Zurich, Switzerland recently.

JCI World Debating Championship includes participants from all over the world. This year’s winning Jamaican team was made up of Odell Marsh, National President of Junior Chamber International, who also acted as team coach. 

The team is completed by Marklon Bedward as first speaker; Miguel Edmondson second speaker; Reneil Clarke, team captain; and Viktor Omarsson, 2023 JCI World President.

The Jamaican team won after presenting the ‘against’ argument for the final motion – “Innovation is more important than regulation in promoting entrepreneurship,” beating out Malaysia, who took the runner-up spot.

It follows the Jamaican team’s regional victory earlier in the year, becoming the Americas champion. This makes the island now the World and Americas champion for 2023.

The team placed second globally in 2021 and went to the semi-finals in 2022. JCI is a non-governmental non-profit organisation comprised of young individuals aged 18 to 40 in some 124 countries. 

The organisation was established with a local Junior Chamber chapter in 1915, with the international JCI founded in 1944 and Mexico. It is headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, and numbered over 160,000 members in 2019.