7 OECS Countries sign multi-country strategy for Technical Cooperation in Health with PAHO/WHO; to 2024

Even (7) OECS Countries sign a multi-country strategy for technical cooperation in health with PAHO/WHO, through to 2024. High-level officials from Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, St Kitts & Nevis, Saint Lucia and St Vincent & the Grenadines joined the Director of the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO), Carissa F Etienne earlier this week, for signing, one day after she assumed her second term as PAHO Director.
 
“This strategy is your vision of how PAHO/WHO can best support the work of your ministries of health in improving the health of their people,” Etienne told the Caribbean health leaders. “It is aligned with your countries’ national health policies, strategies and plans as well as with established Caribbean-wide health goals and the United Nations Multi-Country Sustainable Development Framework for the Caribbean.”
 
The new strategy is the second agreement of its kind between PAHO and this group of countries. It focuses on achieving previously unmet goals while also addressing new challenges the countries face, including health sector reform required to respond to the needs of aging populations, the growing burden of non communicable diseases, and the health effects of climate change, among others.
 
The 2018-2024 Multi-country Cooperation Strategy for Barbados and Eastern Caribbean Countries is based on five strategic priorities: strengthening the countries’ health systems to advance universal health coverage and access; reducing deaths and illness from communicable diseases like HIV, tuberculosis and hepatitis B; achieving optimum family health throughout the life course; reducing the burden of non communicable diseases (NCDs); and strengthening preparedness and response to health emergencies and disasters while also reducing environmental threats and risks.