The Healthy Caribbean Coalition

The Coalition has been established as a Caribbean Civil Society alliance for tackling CNCDs in the areas of advocacy and coalition building, public education and media campaigns, improved provision of services, and monitoring and evaluation. The coalition is expected to support existing country level civil society networks /coalitions where they exist and promote their development where they do not exist, and will encourage and support the establishment and development of national Commissions for CNCDs in all countries of the Caribbean.

A small, regional, Organising Task Force, comprising of key partners from civil society, is responsible for advancing and implementing the Action Plan. Membership of the Task Force presently under the chairmanship of Prof. Trevor A. Hassell, Chairman of the Barbados National Chronic Non Communicable diseases commission, includes 2 civil society regional organization representatives, 4 national civil society organization representatives, a representative of academia, a PAHO observer, and a national government observer.

Membership of the Coalition is open to all civil society organizations in the Caribbean with an interest in reducing the burden of CNCDs. Organizations with linkages to the tobacco industry will not be permitted to join the Healthy Caribbean Coalition.

The Healthy Caribbean Coalition website www.healthycaribbean.org. has been set up as an important element of the communications strategy of the Coalition. The website will be used to exchange information among members of the coalition, provide linkages to important relevant organizations, educate about best practice related to CNCDs, disseminate information, inform about events, be used in advocacy, and provide a medium for members of the public to access information about CNCDs in the Caribbean.

The Caribbean Civil Society Bridgetown Declaration: tackling the Caribbean Epidemic of Chronic diseases, and the Caribbean civil society Action Plan for tackling chronic non-communicable disease; 2008-2011, represent and reflect in some detail the emphases, perspectives, and priorities of the Healthy Caribbean Coalition and are available elsewhere on this site.