RESEARCH & INNOVATION
Institute for National and Global Health Law . “This special issue is intended to keep the spotlight on issues of Caribbean public health especially as it relates to NCDs. We hope that this applied research can drive policy and spur the action needed to curb the incidence of NCDs in the region,” Foster said. She also noted that the Global Center for Legal Innovation on Food Environments has provided the Law and Health Research Unit with US$140, 000 to source a research fellow and project manager to help build out the unit’s capacity. During its first year in operation, the unit assisted in training members of the St. Kitts and Nevis Bar Association and civil society organisations on the role of law in food policy and tobacco control. Strategic partnerships were also formed with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) , the Healthy Caribbean Coalition (HCC) and the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Barbados to boost advocacy on obesity and front-of- package warning labels. “It is clear that the unit has been very successful in the [time] that we’ve actually been operating. We were able to deliver several meaningful outputs and to fill a void within the existing regional legal landscape. From 2016 when the unit’s proposal was first made, it was felt that a law and health research unit was something that would have a positive impact. Now that we managed to actually launch it, this initial sense has been confirmed, as there has been a constant demand for this type of work and analysis,” explained Foster.
and finance sectors, while the case studies examine implementation of smoke-free environments through legislation in St. Lucia, and Antigua and Barbados.” Foster authored the case study on St. Lucia as well as the policy briefs on education and finance, while her colleague in the Faculty of Law, Rashad Brathwaite, authored the other case study and policy briefs. The Law and Health Research Unit has been playing an indirect role in the Caribbean Public Health Law Forum through the representation of the Faculty of Law on the forum’s steering committee and its secretariat. The Caribbean Public Health Law Forum is the Caribbean’s first online network that brings together a range of experts from the legal and public health spheres and is an initiative of the Caribbean Court of Justice Academy for Law and PAHO . The unit’s work has included cross- faculty collaboration as seen by its recent joint submission with Professor Simon Anderson and Dr. Kim Quimby, both of the George Alleyne Chronic Disease Research Centre , to the World Health Organization’s first round of public hearings on a new international instrument on pandemic preparedness and response. As she looked to the future, Foster commented, “Bearing in mind the scale and magnitude of the region’s NCD crisis, for the foreseeable future, the research unit will continue to focus on making a difference in terms of NCD prevention and control, rather than a much broader public health agenda. Looking down the road, however, I can see the unit contributing to other pressing areas of the regional public health agenda, such as health and climate change.” l
O ther activities in which the Law and Health Research Unit was involved over the past year included co- sponsoring a webinar on 30 May with the HCC , the Caribbean Public Health Law Forum , and PAHO for World No Tobacco Day during which four policy briefs and two case studies on smoke-free environments were launched. The publications examined aspects of attaining a smoke-free Caribbean by 2022, a pledge by Heads of the Caribbean Community that has not materialised as yet. Foster said, “The policy briefs are intended to help governments and broader stakeholders understand the linkages between tobacco control and various sectors and why it’s important for us to follow through on our commitments under the [World Health Organization] Framework Convention on Tobacco Control [WHO FCTC] to implement smoke-free environments. The policy briefs discuss the linkages between smoke-free environments and the tourism, blue economy, education, Nicole Foster Head of the Law and Health Research Unit Faculty of Law, Cave Hill Campus
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