MEDIA ADVISORY: Health leaders head to Barbados to tackle biggest health killers

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Tuesday, 17 January 2023

MEDIA AVISORY

Health leaders head to Barbados to tackle biggest health killers

On 17-18 January, the Government of Barbados, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the PAHO/WHO Regional Office for the Americas are holding a High-Level technical meeting on noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and mental health in Small Island Developing States (SIDS) to identify challenges and set out recommendations to scale up action that actually saves lives.

Recognizing the high burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), including obesity, and mental health in SIDS countries, as well as the impact of climate change coupled with the impact of COVID-19 on health and economies in these particularly vulnerable states, this meeting serves to increase focus and to promote the urgency for action.

On a global scale, the SIDS countries have a higher burden of NCDs and poor outcomes when compared to the rest of the world. There are several commercial determinants that impact such outcomes such as high transactional costs and the remoteness of many SIDS countries. In addition, the burden on SIDS countries is exacerbated by climate change.

This technical meeting will serve as a follow-up to the virtual WHO SIDS Summit for Health held in July 2021, which urged Member States to strengthen their collaboration and partnership to address development challenges, a follow up to the SIDS Accelerated Modalities of Action (SAMOA) Pathway in 2014, which includes a commitment to enable cooperation among SIDS countries on health, and a continuation of discussions first initiated in Barbados in 1994 on the Programme of Action for Sustainable Development of SIDS.

Senior technical representatives from the Ministries of Health, academics, people with lived experience, leaders from business and civil society will discuss how the impact of COVID-19, the climate crisis and the political, social and commercial factors driving disproportionately high rates of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and lung cancer, as well as the steep rise in mental health conditions.

The meeting will act as a catalyst for sharing solutions that work and can be scaled up in other SIDS to save lives and improve quality of life. This includes analysis on the impact of soda taxes, efforts to reduce smoking, increase physical activities and to decarbonise and mitigate the effects of climate change.

Additional details below:

· WHAT: High-Level technical meeting on noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and mental health in Small Island Developing States (SIDS). Government blog here.

· WHO: The Government of Barbados, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the PAHO/WHO Regional Office for the Americas

· WHEN: 17-18 January 2023

· WHERE: Hilton Barbados Resort, Needham’s Point, St. Michael

For information on the meeting, including on attending in-person or virtually, please contact:

Brenda Lashley, Pan American Health Organization - lashleyb@paho.org

For media contacts:

Jin Ni, World Health Organization - jinn@who.int or mediainquiries@who.int

Media contacts:

mediainquiries@who.int

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