Barbados GIS: The National NCD Commission welcomes the 2025 Budget, based on the Budgetary Proposal delivered on March 10, 2025, by Minister in the Ministry of Finance, Economic Affairs and Investment, Ryan Straughn. 

The Commission embraces the implementation of a 20 per cent excise tax on high-salt snacks to promote healthier eating and offset health expenditure, effective from June 1, 2025. This includes items such as Pringles, Lays, salted nuts, corn curls, hot balls, Chee Zees, salted popcorn, salted pretzels, and salted crackers, with a review scheduled in two years. Additionally, from April 1, 2025, import duty and Value Added Tax (VAT) will be removed from pears (excluding avocados), ortaniques, mandarins, and plums.

Minister of Health Terrence Deyalsingh, left, presents a book, titled Cancer In Trinidad and Tobago, to PAHO/WHO country representative Dr Gabriel Vivas Francesconi during the NCD Symposium at the Ministry of Health in Port-of-Spain

Photo: Vashti Singh

T&T Guardian: Alcohol consumption among the population of T&T has been increasing for the past 13 years, according to the latest STEPS Survey of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) conducted by the Ministry of Health in 2024.

During a symposium at the ministry on Wednesday, statistics revealed that 51.5 per cent of the population had consumed alcohol in the last 30 days. The 2011 findings, meanwhile, showed 40.6 per cent consumption. 

During the event, director of the ministry’s NCDs Unit, Dr Maria Clapperton, said although men still outnumber women in consumption patterns, that gap had been narrowing. 

“You will notice that there is an increase in consumption patterns among females, being a prevalence reported of 30.9 per cent in 2011 and an increased 43.4 per cent among females in 2024,” she stated.

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Healthy Caribbean Youth (HCY), the youth arm of the Healthy Caribbean Coalition, hosted an Instagram Live session titled Tackling Childhood Obesity in the Caribbean – A Youth-Led Conversation on March 11. The Caribbean has one of the highest rates of childhood obesity globally. During the discussion, HCY members—experts in nutrition, physical activity, and mental health—shared insights on this pressing issue and explored solutions. The conversation was moderated by Alex Johnson and featured Alisha Thomas, Melodie Hercules, Rozette Thomas and Offniel Lamont.

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HSFB: On March 5, 2025, the Heart & Stroke Foundation of Barbados’ Childhood Obesity Prevention Programme held an event to officially launch the "Protect Us!" mass media campaign which directly calls for the ban on marketing of unhealthy ultra-processed products in schools and in recognition of World Obesity Day (March 4, 2025). The campaign's slogan is "Protect Us! It’s time to ban marketing of unhealthy foods and drinks in schools” and calls for policy makers to enforce the restriction of marketing unhealthy food and drinks to children in schools. It reinforces the fact that unhealthy foods and drinks have been removed from the school environment since the implementation of the 2023 Barbados National School Nutrition Policy, however marketing continues.

The primary campaign video shows a school—aged girl, “Rosie” who questions the presence of such marketing activities amidst the steps taken to create a healthier school environment. It highlights sponsorship of sporting activities and branded stationery which have been observed as key marketing initiatives in Barbados. A final call is made for children to be protected in schools, underscoring that 31% of children in Barbados are overweight/obese which can lead to heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and other non-communicable diseases when they grow older. 

The campaign is co-branded by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Healthy Caribbean Coalition (HCC), the Caribbean Institute for Health Research (CAIHR), and the Barbados Childhood Obesity Prevention Coalition. The campaign is aired on TV, radio, print media, on social media and outdoor advertising channels.

UWI: Co-edited by the Law and Health Research Unit at the Faculty of Law, the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, and the Global Center for Legal Innovation on Food Environments at the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, Georgetown University, this Special Issue establishes the status quo of the NCD prevention agenda in the Caribbean, as well as explores the potential for making concrete advances using the law, including with reference to lessons learnt from regional neighbors in Latin America. 

The open access availability of this publication is significant at many levels. Firstly, the Special Issue focuses on chronic non-communicable diseases, one of the most critical and defining sustainable development challenges in the Caribbean. Secondly, making the publication open access reinforces the importance of this publication as it helps amplify the voices of Caribbean scholars and helps the global community better understand some of the challenges faced by our small island developing states. Lastly, open access publication of the Special Issue helps secure its ultimate goal of informing policy discourse both at the grassroots and the governmental levels and hopefully driving concrete, positive action in the near future. 

The Special Issue includes pieces by Shajoe Lake and Shereika Mills, scholarship recipients at Georgetown Law’s National and Global Health Law LL.M., supported by the Food Policy Program. It also includes pieces by the following Food Policy Program partners: the Global Center for Legal Innovation on Food Environments at the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law, Georgetown University; the Law and Health Research Unit at the Faculty of Law, the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus; the Healthy Caribbean Coalition; and the Instituto Brasileiro de Defesa do Consumidor (Idec).

New Health Survey to Address Barbados’ NCD Crisis

L to R Minister of State in the Ministry of Health Davidson Ishmael speaking with Permanent Secretary Janet Phillips, and Chief Medical Officer Dr The Most Honourable Kenneth George Phote: SB

Barbados Today: A new Health of the Nation Survey will be conducted this year to get a fix on Barbados’ growing non-communicable disease (NCD) epidemic, which accounts for 80 per cent of deaths on the island, health minister Davidson Ishmael has announced.

The survey aims to provide crucial data for evidence-based policymaking, addressing the urgent need for updated information on dietary habits and nutrition status.

Ishmael, the minister of state in the Ministry of Health, made the announcement during the National Nutrition Centre’s conference for Nutrition Month, themed Unpacking the Economics of Healthy Diets and Sustainable Agriculture, held at the Radisson Aquatica Resort.

Related: 

Barbados Today: Prevention over cure – changing the NCD narrative

HCC Webinar: Changing Systems, Healthier Lives: The Caribbean Journey to the UN High Level Meeting

Webinar Recording Now Available

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On the 13 March, 2025 in commemoration of World Obesity Day and under the theme “Changing Systems, Healthier Lives”, the HCC hosted a webinar, “Changing Systems, Healthier Lives: The Caribbean Road to UN High Level Meeting on NCDs and Mental Health” attended by over 150 people it covered the following:

• it outlined key advocacy priorities for Caribbean countries in preparation for the 2025 UN High-Level Meeting on NCDs.
• it presented examples of ongoing efforts and success stories in NCD prevention, control, and advocacy within the Caribbean region, highlighting potential progress or setbacks if advocacy priorities are not addressed.
• it explored how attendees can amplify the Regional Advocacy Priorities through their local, regional and global work.

The Lancet: Small Island Developing States (SIDS) include 37 UN member countries sharing economic, environmental, and social vulnerabilities and intractable health challenges. In over 80% of SIDS, more than one in six adults die prematurely from a non-communicable disease (NCD), with poor diet being a major factor. Complex upstream food system determinants include marginalised local food production and reliance on low nutritional quality food imports. These drivers need to be seen against colonial and post-colonial political–economic legacies as well as the environmental and climate crises that challenge local production systems. A range of policy commitments (eg, the 2023 Bridgetown Declaration on NCDs and Mental Health) highlight these complex interdependencies and call for cross-sectoral food system policies to improve food security, food sovereignty, and nutrition, including integrating measures for climate change adaptation and mitigation. Although addressing these intersecting challenges will also depend on global efforts, the unique approach of SIDS can inform other settings.

This Cervical Cancer E-Petition Infographic represents the final data from the Caribbean Cervical Cancer e-petition (CCCEP). Under the banner of ‘End Cervical Cancer Now‘, the CCCEP campaign was created to raise awareness of cervical cancer, the HPV vaccination and to lobby the heads of Caribbean Governments to ‘Increase Caribbean women’s access to affordable Cervical Cancer screening‘.