Caricom heads to focus on health at upcoming summit

TIMES INT'L

The upcoming 32nd regular Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community, which opens in St Kitts and Nevis on July 01, will focus on health, as the Community marks ten years of solid achievements in that sector since the 2001 Nassau Declaration – the Health of the Region is the Wealth of the Region.

Acting Caricom Secretary General Ambassador Lolita Applewhaite told journalists at a media conference on June 24 that health was one of the major success areas for the Community in its “arsenal of functional cooperation.”

It is in this context, therefore, that the United Nations General Assembly high-level meeting on the Prevention and Control of Non Communicable Diseases (NCDs) will also take centre stage on the agenda of this summit as heads of government fine tune their preparations for that meeting, set for New York in September.

As a fitting tribute to ten years of achievement in health, a ceremonial signing of the Inter Governmental Agreement (IGA) to establish the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) as a legal entity will be one of the features of this summit.

In outlining the programme for the meeting, Ambassador Applewhaite told media representatives that the opening ceremony, scheduled for the evening of June 30 at the Sir Cecil Jacobs Auditorium, would be addressed by the presidents of Haiti and Suriname, Their Excellencies Michel Martelly and Desiré D Bouterse; the prime ministers of Barbados and St Vincent and the Grenadines, the Honourable Freundel Stuart and Dr Ralph Gonsalves; who are heads of government elected or appointed since the last regular meeting.

The prime ministers of Grenada and St Kitts and Nevis, Tilman Thomas and Dr Denzil Douglas, will address the meeting as outgoing and incoming Chairs, respectively.

The conference will also confer the Order of the Caribbean Community (OCC) on His Excellency, Sir Edwin Carrington, the former Secretary- General of the Caribbean Community, and the Caricom Triennial Award for Women will be presented to Professor Violet Eudine Barriteau, Deputy Principal of the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill campus in Barbados.

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