CARICOM Must Remain Committed to Fighting NCDs – PM Holness.
Prime Minister of Jamaica and Chairman of CARICOM, the Most Honourable Andrew Holness has called on Heads of Government in the Caribbean region to remain steadfast and committed to the fight against Non- Communicable Diseases (NCDs).
The Prime Minister says the region must renew its commitment, which was made more than ten years ago, to tackle NCDs.
“Recognizing that NCDs remain a major challenge to the health of our populations, we have again elevated this to the UN development agenda for prioritization of efforts to reduce risk factors”, stated Prime Minister Holness.
Prime Minister Holness was speaking in New York at the 3rd UN High-level Meeting on NCDs today (September 27), where CARICOM launched the “Step it up” initiative.
Jamaica is set to lead the CARICOM region in the fight against NCD’s. This initiative is an adaptation from the ‘Jamaica Moves’ initiative.
Prime Minister Holness reported at the 39th Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community in July of this year, six (6) priorities which were endorsed by the Heads of Government.
The priorities are:
• Establishing and maintaining a smoke-free status for the Region;
• Implementing policies geared to preventing Childhood Obesity, including for health-promoting school environments and Front of Package (FOP) labelling;
• Promoting the elimination of cancer of the cervix;
• Support for mitigation of post disaster vulnerabilities related to NCDs in particular nutrition, treatment and care;
• Increasing international financing and technical support and
• Strengthening accountability in particular through national coordinating mechanisms.
Prime Minister Holness said these priorities are to guide Member States in the negotiation of the outcome document for the Third High Level Meeting on NCDs.
The meeting was held during the high-level week of the UN General Assembly underway in New York, United States of America.
