(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) A Special Meeting of the CARICOM Council for Human and Social Development (COHSOD) on Health will be convened at the offices of the Pan American Health Organisation, Caribbean Office, Bridgetown, Barbados on 15 June 2007.
Under the chairmanship of Dr. the Hon. Jerome Walcott, Minister of Health, Barbados, the Eleventh Special COHSOD will discuss and make decisions on the governance of the five Regional Health Institutions; and streamline the way forward for the implementation of the third phase of the Caribbean Corporation in Health Initiative (CCH).This would include discussion on the alignment of the core functions of the Regional Health Institutions with eight priority areas, and the financing of a strengthened CCH III Secretariat.
Recommendations on the governance and financing of the Regional Health Institutions will also be tabled for the consideration of the Heads of Government at the Conference of Heads to be convened, July 2007 in Barbados.
The Meeting will also receive the Status Report on the Caribbean Accreditation Authority for Education in Medicine and Other Health Professions, and review the draft Agreement for Scientific-Technical Cooperation in the Health Sector between CARICOM and the Republic of Cuba to facilitate signing of this agreement as soon as possible.
It will discuss prioritizing and sustaining the benefits accruing to the Region’s health agenda as a spin-off from Cricket World Cup 2007, hosted in the Region between May and June, and review capacity building projects such as the Medical Laboratory Services Project, which was funded by the European Union and ends this June
The concept of the Caribbean Cooperation in Health Initiative (CCH) was introduced in 1984 at a meeting of the former CARICOM Conference of Ministers responsible for Health (CMH). The CMH saw this as a mechanism for health development through increasing collaboration and promoting technical cooperation among countries in the Caribbean.
The five Regional Health Institutions are the Caribbean Epidemiology Centre (CAREC) The Caribbean Environment Health Institute (CEHI) Caribbean Health Research Council (CHRC), Caribbean Food and Nutrition Institute (CFNI) and the Caribbean Regional Drug Testing Laboratory (CRDTL).
