Health, Sustainable Development and the Environment will be the focus of the deliberations of the Tenth Meeting of the Council for Human and Social Development (COHSOD) which takes place at the Tobago Hilton, Scarborough, Trinidad and Tobago, on 28-30 April 2004.
As the Community continues to put in place the polices and programmes to accelerate the integration process, significant among which are those that put the health of the people at the centre of its efforts, the implementation of the Nassau Declaration, with its underlying principle that the Health of the Region is the Wealth of the Region, comes high on the agenda of this Tenth Meeting. Ministers will consider a report on the challenges faced implementing the Nassau Declaration and determine further action, in this regard.
Special focus will be given to current developments in the regional strategic response to HIV/AIDS under the Pan Caribbean Partnership in the Fight Against HIV/AIDS (PANCAP) and the Strengthening Institutional Response to HIV/AIDS (SIRHASC) projects. Non-Communicable Diseases and Mental Health and the identification of the new thrust of the Caribbean Cooperation in Health initiated in the 1980s and revised in mid 1990s, are also among the issues for discussion.
Important human resource development issues for consideration at this meeting include: public health leadership, managed migration of nurses, and the establishment of Caribbean Accreditation Authority for Education in Medicine and other Health Professionals and trade related aspects of intellectual property rights and public health. The meeting will consider the challenges and opportunities associated with the TRIPS as it impacts on the ability of small developing states like those in CARICOM to access affordable drugs and pharmaceuticals and thereby improve the health of its citizens.
With respect to Health and the Environment, the meeting will discuss issues relating to capacity building for the integration of environmental health knowledge into decision-making; watershed and coastal area management, climate variability and change and its potential impacts on human health in the Caribbean, among others. These health and environment issues will be presented within the context of regional and international obligations such as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the Summit of the Americas and Health and Environment Ministers of the Americas (HEMA) Agenda, the Small Island Development Programme (SIDS) Plan of Action.
A special issue occupying this agenda is the regional framework to guide the development of a health and emergency services plan for the historic hosting of the World Cup Cricket 2007, by the Caribbean.
Under the theme Investing in Human Resources with Special Reference to Health, Sustainable Development and the Environment, the meeting gets underway with an Opening Ceremony on 28 April, at the Tobago Hilton in which CARICOM Secretary-General Mr. Edwin Carrington will give the Welcome. Remarks will also be given by Dr. Mirta Roses Periago, Director, Pan American Health Organisation, and H.E. Hon. John Rahael, Minister of Health, Trinidad and Tobago. A special feature of the ceremony is the signing of the US$ nine million Grant Agreement between the World Bank IDA and the CARICOM/PANCAP for HIV/AIDS.
