MINISTER within the Ministry of Public Health, Dr Karen Cummings, this week led a team of Guyanese professionals to participate in a two-day Strategic Planning Workshop with the European Union/ACP funded One Health, One Caribbean, One Love Project in Trinidad and Tobago. The primary purpose of this workshop was to gather leading Caribbean policy-makers together to draft a relevant and coherent five-year One Health Strategic Plan for the Caribbean. This process of collaborative planning allows key decisions to be made on the direction for One Health in the Caribbean by 2023, as they relate to goals, priorities, and actions to be taken by Caribbean governments.
The objective of the two-day workshop was to make recommendations for approaches to the satisfactory governance of One Health in the Caribbean and agree on the requirements for successful implementation of the agreed strategy at regional and country levels, the Ministry of Public Health said in a release.
Some of the issues addressed were: Assessing the One Health Landscape in the Caribbean, Reviewing of the One Health SWOT Analysis, Framing the Vision and Mission and Guiding Principles for One Health, and Defining the Strategic Priorities, Outcomes, Performance Measures for One Health for 2023, among others. “The One Health concept is a very important one that plays a pivotal role in the preservation of the health and well-being of humans, animals, and the environment. All Caribbean leaders must do what is necessary to ensure they advance the One Health agenda in their respective countries, particularly through an inter-sectoral, multidisciplinary approach,” Minister Cummings said.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Strategic Action Plan, “One Health” is a unifying force intended to safeguard human and animal health, to reduce disease threats and to ensure a safe food supply through effective and responsible management of natural resources.
The “One Health One Caribbean One Love” project is funded by the European Union and implemented by the University of the West Indies (UWI), with PAHO/WHO FAO, CIRAD, Ministries of Agriculture, Public Health, and Grenada and St. Kitts as project partners.
Accompanying Minister Cummings were: Senior Environmental Officer (Agriculture, Fisheries and Tourism) – Environmental Protection Agency – Ms. Camille Adams; Agricultural Health Specialist – Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) – Ms. Maxine Parris-Aaron; Deputy Chief Executive Officer – Guyana Livestock Development Authority – Dr. Dwight Walrond; Veterinary Surgeon and Zoo Technologist – Guyana Livestock Development Authority – Dr. Rennard Overton; Technical Advisor to the Minister within the Ministry of Public Health, Dr. Samantha Kennedy and Personal Assistant to the Minister within the Ministry of Public Health, Mr. Richard Francois. This visit was funded by the One Health, One Caribbean, One Love Project.