Right to foods for a better life and a better future 

FAO: The world's farmers produce enough food to feed more than the global population yet, hunger persists. Around 733 million people are facing hunger in the world due to repeated weather shocks, conflicts, economic downturns, inequality, and the pandemic. This impacts the poor and vulnerable most severely, many of whom are agricultural households, reflecting widening inequalities across and within countries. 

Food is the third most basic human need after air and water – everyone should have the right to adequate food. Human rights such as the right to food, life and liberty, work and education are recognised by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and two legally binding international covenants. 

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NCD Alliance: The annual Global Week for Action on NCDs seeks to ensure NCD prevention and management get the attention and action they deserve, everywhere, for everyone.

Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), such as cancers, diabetes, mental health conditions and many others, are the #1 cause of death and disability worldwide. They account for 74% of all deaths and more than three out of four years lived with a disability. If no clear action is taken to reverse this trend, deaths from NCDs could rise to 52 million — or the population of South Korea — per year by 2030.

HCC will be spotlighting Caribbean NCD leaders leading up to the 4th UN High Level Meeting on NCDs (HLM4) to be held during the United Nations General Assembly in September 2025. 

As we look towards the HLM4, uniting around the theme - TIME TO LEAD, the HCC is seeking to recognise and showcase NCD champions - individuals and organisations who have shown exemplary leadership in NCD prevention and control in the Caribbean. 

We are inviting our constituents to submit nominations of Caribbean NCD Leaders - individuals and organisations who you believe should be celebrated for their acts - small or large - which have changed the trajectory of the NCD response in your communities or countries. 

Who is eligible to be an HCC Caribbean NCD Leader? Individuals (representing civil society, academia and the public sector) and Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) working in the Caribbean. 

How do you nominate Caribbean NCD Leaders? Use the google form linked below to nominate the names of Individuals (representing civil society, academia and the public sector) or Civil Society Organisations (CSOs). 

The google form includes a series of prompts including describing the reason you are nominating this person/organisation, 2-3 key contributions/achievements which merit recognition as a NCD Leader and submitting a quote from the nominee in response to this question: What should CARICOM policymakers be prioritizing to accelerate action on NCDs? 

The HCC looks forward to your submissions.

HCC Executive Director, Maisha Hutton, attended the 61st Directing Council of the Pan American Health Organisation from 29 September to 4 October in Washington DC. The HCC is an NGO in Official Relations with PAHO and has enjoyed this status since 2012. The HCC delivered three interventions covering NCD-related agenda items on climate change, tobacco control and health-related law. The climate change Statement in response to Agenda Item 4.3 Policy for Strengthening Equity-Oriented Health Sector Action on Climate Change and Health (Resolution CE174.R15 [2024]), developed in partnership with EarthMedic EarthNurse, endorsed the Resolution and made five recommendations including health workforce training, scaling up of climate smart hospitals, public education and pre-identification of people living with NCDs to facilitate post-disaster support. 

In response to Agenda Item 4.7 - Strategy and Plan of Action to Strengthen Tobacco Control in the Region of the Americas 2025–2030 (Resolution CE174.R7 [2024]), HCC praised PAHO for development of the Strategy and called on Member States to commit to implementing the Strategy and Plan of Action prioritising: tobacco taxation; bans on tobacco product advertising; expanding tobacco control policies and programmes to include emerging tobacco products; public education campaigns to highlight the health harms of tobacco and e-cigarette use; and strengthening of measures to proactively prevent tobacco industry interference. 

In delivering this intervention the HCC used the opportunity to register concern with the absence of an agenda item on regional preparations for the 4th UN High-Level Meeting on NCDs in 2025. 

Finally in HCC’s third Statement, in response to Agenda Item 8.10C on Statement on Provisional Agenda 8.10 C Strategy on Health-related Law: Progress Report (Resolution CD54.R9 [2015]), the HCC highlighted that progress in health-related law has been negatively impacted by industries producing and promoting health-harming products due to the absence of regulatory guardrails to protect public health policymaking from undue influence. The HCC called on Member States, with the support of PAHO, to strengthen public health governance through the promotion of regulatory tools which safeguard the process of drafting, implementing and enforcing legislation from vested commercial interests. The full Statements can be found here.

The Healthy Caribbean Coalition(HCC)/Healthy Caribbean Youth (HCY) is one of 25 organisations from across the globe on the WHO Youth Council for the 2024-2026 term. HCY Lead/HCC Advocacy Officer Danielle Walwyn will be representing HCC/HCY. She recently attended the Young Leaders for Healthy Societies Conference in Berlin, Germany which provided an opportunity for the new Council to discuss their vision and strategy for the upcoming term aligned with the newly launched Youth Declaration on Creating Healthy Societies. 

As the only organisation representing the Caribbean and Small Island Developing States more broadly, Danielle looks forward to strategically working with HCC Youth Voices Technical Advisor Pierre Kevin Cooke Jr, HCY members and youth from the SIDS community to ensure that their unique issues and proposed solutions are amplified.

Did you know that the very foods you eat daily may contain harmful chemicals silently increasing your risk of heart attack or stroke? Industrially-produced trans fats—often lurking in packaged and processed foods— are among the dangerous ingredients in our diets today. As the December 2025 deadline for eliminating these harmful fats from our food supply in the Caribbean approaches, the Healthy Caribbean Coalition (HCC), with the support of Resolve to Save Lives and partners , is pleased to launch the campaign titled “Let’s Talk About Trans Fats! And Why They Need to Go!”. 

The campaign is part of a larger regional movement to ban industrially-produced trans fats from the food supply, which has proven to be cost-effective in protecting lives and reducing the burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) across the Caribbean. Eliminating trans fat reduces health care costs by preventing heart attacks, which require costly care.

Read the full press release.

October 22, 2024 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM CEST/ 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM EST

WHO: As a part of the official announcement of the WHO Food Systems Community of Practice, WHO will host an “Expert Hour” on trans fat elimination. Experts will present and discuss on the global efforts to eliminate industrially produced trans fat, share achievements since 2018, outline priorities going forward, and answer your questions on all things ‘trans fat elimination’. The webinar is hosted in collaboration with Resolve to Save Lives.

November 5 at 10.30 AM AST

HCC/CBU: As the Healthy Caribbean Coalition (HCC) partners once again with the CBU for the Caribbean Media Awards, television, radio, print and digital content producers are invited to an online sensitization session on November 5 at 10.30 AM AST. 

The focus will be on Healthy Nutrition Food Policy, the theme of the Awards categories sponsored by HCC in 2023 and 2024. HCC will be fielding experts to provide in depth information on the topic, even as regional media houses consider their possible entries for the next round of the Awards competition. 

This is the second year of this innovative civil society, media and private sector partnership, which has served not only to recognize excellence in public health journalism in the area of nutrition but has been instrumental in catalyzing and expanding media interest and work in this area.

The NCD Alliance led Global Week for Action on NCDs took place during the week 5-11 September 2022 under the theme Invest to Protect.

The annual Global Week for Action on NCDs seeks to ensure NCD prevention and management get the attention and action they deserve, everywhere, for everyone.