The Healthy Caribbean Coalition joins forces with the World Diabetes Foundation at the 2nd Global NCD Alliance Forum in Sharjah. (left to right) Dr Karen Sealey from the HCC Board of Directors, Dr Kaushik Ramaiya, from the World Diabetes Foundation Board of Directors, Maisha Hutton Executive Director of the HCC and Sir Trevor Hassell, HCC President
HCC to Host Caribbean NCD Forum – Kingston Jamaica 23-25 April 2018. The Healthy Caribbean Coalition joins forces with the World Diabetes Foundation to support Caribbean civil society in its efforts to engage leaders in the region in the fight against NCDs.
The Healthy Caribbean Coalition (HCC) is pleased to announce that the World Diabetes Foundation (WDF) has agreed to sponsor and co-host a Caribbean NCD Forum: Supporting national and regional advocacy in the Caribbean in the lead up to the 3rd UN High-Level Meeting on NCDs in 2018.
The Forum is being held with HCC partners, the Jamaica Ministry of Health, the Heart Foundation of Jamaica (HFJ), the Jamaica Cancer Society (JCS), the Diabetes Association of Jamaica (DAJ), the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO), the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), the University of the West Indies Open Campus (UWI OC), HCC member organisations, and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM)..
The regional multi-stakeholder civil society led Caribbean NCD Forum will be held 23-25 April 2018, in Kingston, with the main objective to mobilise civil society organisations (CSOs) from across the Caribbean, and other key stakeholders, to ensure that Caribbean civil society is fully engaged in the 2018 UN High Level Meeting on NCDs (UNHLM).
The Caribbean NCD Forum will provide a unique opportunity for CSOs in the region to take stock of progress achieved in NCD prevention and control since the 1st UN High level Meeting on NCDs held in 2011, and share regional successes and lessons learned from NCD policies and programmes, all with a view to accelerating action leading up to and beyond the 2018 UNHLM.
A ‘CARICOM CSO Statement on NCD Priorities’ aligned with the priorities of the wider CARICOM community of stakeholders will be arrived at through the Caribbean NCD Forum and presented at the anticipated UNHLM Civil Society Hearing and the 39th Annual CARICOM Heads Conference in July 2018.
The Caribbean NCD Forum will be attended by representatives of civil society, ministries of health and non-health ministries, public sector health partners and the private sector. During the course of the three-day event delegates will; assess NCD response progress in the Caribbean; harmonize CARICOM priority areas for the UNHLM 2018; develop a communication strategy to encourage the highest level political attendance at the UNHLM and explore post-2018 strategies towards the achievement by Caribbean nations of the goals set out in the WHO Global Action Plan on NCDs and in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The World Diabetes Foundation (WDF) is dedicated to the prevention and care of diabetes and other NCDs in the developing world, and has as its primary aim to alleviate human suffering related to diabetes and its complications among the most vulnerable populations.
For more than a decade the WDF has been supporting projects and programmes in the Caribbean, and project funding and technical support have been provided by WDF to a wide range of partners and stakeholders at both regional and national level, including ministries of health, diabetes associations and other civil society organisations, CARPHA, PAHO, and many others.
Dr Kaushik Ramaiya, of the WDF Board of Directors, in conveying news of the funding support for the Caribbean NCD Forum remarked;
It is with great excitement that WDF will support and co-host the Caribbean NCD Forum 2018 in Jamaica. WDF has always believed strongly in civil society as essential in any meaningful response to diabetes and other NCDs, no matter where in the world. The global NCD movement started for real in the Caribbean with the Port of Spain declaration back in 2007 and we hope that civil society and leaders of the Caribbean once again will be at the forefront of the process, this time leading to the UN High Level Meeting. WDF remains a strong ally of the Caribbean in the fight against NCDs.
On behalf of the Board of Directors, the Executive Director and the members of the HCC, Sir Trevor Hassell, HCC President commented that
The Caribbean NCD Forum represents a special and unique opportunity for Caribbean civil society to unite and meaningfully contribute to regional multisectoral dialogue and action in support of the highest level of CARICOM political participation at the 3rd UN HLM in 2018 – a meeting which will set the tone for accelerated national and global action on NCDs as we approach 2025 and 2030. The HCC welcomes this partnership with the WDF which has made this important regional forum a reality.
Read the original announcement here.