Caribbean Health Communication Blog

This past weekend, CARICOM members held the 32nd Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government in St. Kitts and Nevis. Regarding health, nothing new came out of the meeting, but here’s a quick recap, courtesy of Caricom’s Communique:

• Heads of Government noted the progress made in the sector across the Community over the past ten years to improve the health and well-being of the people and to contribute to economic development of the Region.
• Heads of Government welcomed the entry into force of the Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA), establishing the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) which will have its Headquarters in Trinidad and Tobago. CARPHA is intended to advance the realization, embodied in the Nassau Declaration signed ten years ago (2001): the Health of the Region is the Wealth of the Region. In this regard, it is expected to highlight the opportunity costs of pursuing public health functions in a consolidated way, rather than as disparate entities, as existed until now, that duplicate efforts and dilute the public health objectives for which they were designed.
• Heads of Government lauded the contribution of the Pan Caribbean Partnership Against HIV/AIDS (PANCAP), which has earned the accolade of an international best practice by the UN in the fight against the disease and noted with satisfaction its achievements as the partnership celebrated this year, the 10th Anniversary of the signing of the PANCAP Commitment.
• Heads of Government applauded the positive contribution of the Community led by PANCAP at the recent UN High Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS. They noted that among the major Caribbean regional commitments contained in the outcome document were the elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, reducing AIDS-related maternal deaths by 2015 and the need to ensure that financial resources for prevention are targeted to evidence-based prevention measures.
• Heads of Government welcomed the significant role being played by the Community in advocacy and preparation for the UN High-Level Meeting on the Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) scheduled for UN Headquarters, New York, USA 19-20 September 2011.