(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) CARICOM Secretariat’s Assistant Secretary-General, Human and Social Development, Dr Edward Greene has described the proposed creation of the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) as “an investment in the health of the people of the Caribbean.”

Dr Greene was giving remarks at the opening session of the International Partners Forum in Washington, on Monday. The Forum, chaired by Dr the Hon Leslie Ramsammy, Minister of Health, Guyana, brought together international delegations from the Governments of USA, Canada, France, UK, Sweden; the global organizations, including the World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, the Caribbean Development Bank and the Caribbean Tourism Organization as well as Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs).

Hosted by the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO/WHO) at its headquarters in Washington, the Forum provided a platform for strategic advocacy in engaging partners in discussions that will garner technical and financial support for the establishment and sustainability of CARPHA.

Dr Greene told international development partners and other delegates at the Forum that when the CARICOM Heads of Government approved the establishment of CARPHA at their Inter-sessional Meeting in March 2010, it marked a significant step in the history of public health development in the CARICOM region.

The creation of this new institution, the Assistant Secretary-General explained, would serve to demonstrate further the invaluable role that regional institutions play in advancing the regional integration process.

“CARPHA -like other regional institutions - fully illustrates the value and virtue of functional cooperation that underpins the viability of the Caribbean Single Market (CSM) in operation since 2006,” he stated.

Initiatives such as CARPHA, Dr Greene added, would help to cement the effectiveness of the ambitious vision and mission to achieve a CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) by 2015.

CARPHA will begin operating on a phased basis from December 2010. It will combine and build on the functions of the Caribbean’s five Regional Health Institutions: Caribbean Epidemiological Research Center (CAREC); Caribbean Health Research Council (CHRC); Caribbean Food and Nutrition Institute (CFNI); Caribbean Environmental Health Institute (CEHI); Caribbean Drug Testing Regional Laboratory (CDTRL).

According to Dr Greene, the policy paper for CARPHA to be presented to the Conference of Heads of Government Meeting in Jamaica in July 2010, cited the consolidation of the five RHIs into CARPHA as an outstanding example of the future direction for operations and governance arrangements of regional institutions.

In addition, he said the intergovernmental agreement designed to give legal effect to CARPHA, would most likely serve as a model for future consolidated institutional arrangements within the Community.

Contact: piu@caricom.org