146 | Campus Events
Health Policy Development in the Caribbean: Trends, Challenges and Opportunities As the Caribbean grapples with the rising rates of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), The UWI Cave Hill campus has reaffirmed its commitment to contributing to shaping health policy in the region. Deputy Dean in the Faculty of Law, Nicole Foster, gave that commitment at a virtual panel discussion jointly hosted by The UWI and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) on the topic ‘Health Policy Development in the Caribbean: Trends, Challenges and Opportunities’. She said the Law and Health Research Unit, which was launched in July 2021, will play a critical role in efforts to regulate and establish public health policies. However, she noted that policymakers need to be conscious of the parameters within which they operate. “Protections on freedom of expression may run afoul of efforts by public health persons to regulate marketing, for example, within our societies. And certainly, many of us recall the ferocious debates that took place in the context of COVID, in terms of restrictions on freedom of movement and how you strike those balances, and law is critical to those discussions,” Foster told the online audience. The attorney-at-law added that a lack of understanding of the role of the laws is one of the main challenges that poli- cymakers face. “It is not an area that traditionally people have understood there’s a connection. However, if you think about the best buys for example, for NCDs you would realise that practi- cally all of them rely on law for implementation. And that alone speaks to the power of law in this space.” Executive Director of Healthy Caribbean Coalition, Maisha Hutton, shared similar concerns: “Conflict of interest and industry interference especially in the NCD policymaking space, we’re dealing with commercial determinants of health and healthy commodities, this is one of the single
greatest barriers to policy implementation,” she stated. However, she acknowledged some policy wins, due in part to civil society advocacy, including the decision by the Barbados government to double the tax on sugar sweet- ened beverages. Advisor in Human Resources at the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Dr Benjamin Puertas, highlighted the importance of health policy in light of the recent inter- national health challenges. “Health policy is even more important now after the pandemic because it helps establish guidelines that benefit healthcare organisations, healthcare systems and the popu- lation’s health, which is the most important component,” he said. Executive Director of the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), Dr Joy St John, pointed to the need for continued regional collaboration in public health. “Caribbean cooperation in health is (necessary) for regional health development which goes along with national improvements. And this Caribbean cooperation in health is a great foundation for regional action,” she said. The panel discussion followed the launch of The UWI/ PAHO joint postgraduate programmes in Health Policy and Health Systems in April. The programmes are designed to build human resource capacity within the public health sector in the Caribbean.
THE UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST INDIES CAVE HILL CAMPUS ANNUAL REPORT TO COUNCIL 2021/2022
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