(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The groundbreaking CARICOM Heads of Government Summit on NCDs opened in Port-of-Spain, with a strong call from the Keynote Speaker the Hon. Dr Denzil Douglas, Prime Minister of St Kitts and Nevis and the Lead Head of Government with responsibility for Health, in the Quasi Cabinet of CARICOM, to implement appropriate legislation, fiscal and regulatory measures and promote public/private sector partnerships to stem the tide of the NCDs.

Focusing on the issue of collective responsibility, Dr Douglas added that "individual responsibility, while important, only has full effect where people have equal access to healthy choices." Therefore "governments had a crucial role to play by altering the social environment to help make the healthy choice the easy choice," he asserted.

The St Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister outlined statistics on NCDs demonstrating that it was no longer the diseases of rich countries but the leading causes of death in Caribbean among both males and females.

He attributed the root causes of NCDs to both behavioural and biological factors but emphasised that several of those factors were modifiable. He further explained that several of the risk factors were rooted in global influences.

In concluding, Dr. Douglas urged his colleagues to lead by example, assess their own lifestyle and take care of their health.

In his welcoming remarks, the Right Honourable Owen Arthur, Chairman of CARICOM and Prime Minister of Barbados, outlined the progress made in trade in the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) but hastened to point out that comparable progress had to be made in the social sphere to sustain the progress made in regional integration, hence the absolute necessity of a coordinated regional public/private partnership programme to stem NCDs.

Prime Minister Arthur acknowledged that the health challenges in the Region were daunting remarking that the Community was in no doubt that the costly complications, morbidity and mortality produced by this epidemic … could only be reduced by a comprehensive regional approach. “We are determined to make our Region succeed,” he ended.

The Honourable Patrick Manning, Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago and host of the Summit, in his opening remarks, underscored the gravity of the problem of NCDs and asserted the need for the Region to have a clear understanding of the factors that put the Caribbean peoples at risk in order to devise appropriate responses.

According to Prime Minister Manning the high mortality rate in the region caused by NCDs and the social and personal costs combined with the financial implications “are sufficient justifications for the Summit and a call for focused, policy-oriented effective, result-producing decisions and actions that are required now.”

The effort, he added, required collective regional cooperation and creative imagination, in adjusting our lifestyles and providing health infrastructure to speed up the management and control of NCDs.

The Secretary General of CARICOM His Excellency Edward Carrington in his opening remarks paid tribute to the Late Sir John Compton whom he said was one of the towering Caribbean figures whose contribution to the regional integration process was sterling and unswerving.

Mr. Carrington exhorted Heads of Government to seize the opportunity to “leave a legacy of a healthier region by making the Summit “momentous for setting in motion the structure by which we not only stem the tide but by which we truly unite to stop the epidemic of the Non Communicable Diseases.”

The Secretary General pointed to the seminal report of the Caribbean Commission for Health and Development (CCHD), and noted that it had created an awareness of the “deleterious and financial consequences of NCDs to our Caribbean countries,” and that “the solutions revolved around primary prevention based on a comprehensive programme, which was the most cost effective approach to contain the emerging epidemic. “

He further stated that the challenge of the Heads of Government was to “develop a blue print for an integrated strategy for prevention and control of NCDs, targeting the three main risk factors – unhealthy diet, physical inactivity and Tobacco use –“ and expressed confidence that the problem, though daunting, was not insurmountable.

The one-day Summit continued with a panel of four leading health experts discussing issues such as obesity, effects of tobacco use and trade and its implications for NCDs. Chaired by the Honourable Sir George Alleyne, OCC, Chairman of the Caribbean Commission on Health and Development (CCHD), the panel comprised partners such as Ms Caroline Antsey, Director, Caribbean Unit, World Bank; Prof. Prabhat Jha, Professor of Epidemiology, University of Toronto; Prof. Phillip James, President, International Obesity Task Force and Mr Vincent Atkins, Senior Research Professional in the Agricultural Trade Negotiating Programme, Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (CRNM).

Contact: piu@caricom.org