SOCIAL SECTOR INVESTMENT PROGRAMME
18
SUSTAINING GROWTH, SECURING PROSPERITY
3. H
EALTH
I
SSUES
I
NCLUDING
HIV/AIDS
• CARPHA 58th Annual Scientific Meeting
The Caribbean Public Health Agency’s
(CARPHA) 58th Annual Scientific Meeting
was held from May 2–4, 2013 in Barbados
8
with special focus on Child Health. Childhood
obesity was identified as a major cause for
concern in the region. It was highlighted that
the region’s ability to respond to this obesity
challenge was important as obesity underlies a
number of chronic diseases including diabetes,
high blood pressure, hypercholesterolemia
and cardiovascular diseases, as well as mental
health problems and additional costs to the
health sector.
The topics discussed were: Global Health,
Health Services Research, Maternal/Child
Health, Paediatrics, Preventive Medicine, Public
Health, Underserved Populations and Youth.
Participants consisted of Health Services
and Nursing Researchers, Paediatric Nurses,
Paediatricians, Physician Researchers, Policy
Analysts, Public Health Experts, and Public
HealthWorkers.
• Launch of VCT@WORK
On June 6, 2013, the Joint United Nations
Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and
the International Labour Organisation (ILO)
launched a new global initiative called VCT@
WORK which, by 2015,
9
will provide a total 5
million working women and men with voluntary
and confidential HIV counselling and testing.
VCT@WORK is the ILO’s contribution to
achieving Millennium Development Goal 6
on combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other
diseases, and includes the target of ensuring
access to treatment for 15 million people living
with HIV by 2015, as set out in the 2011 UN
General Assembly Political Declaration on HIV
and AIDS.
8
9
4. E
DUCATION
• Education Planning for the Caribbean
Workshop
Over the period January 14–18, 2013 in Port of
Spain, Trinidad, 50 education planners from 21
Caribbean Countries including Haiti participated
in an Education Planning for the Caribbean
workshop, which was supported by UNESCO,
CDB and UNICEF
10
. The central objective of this
capacity building workshop was to train staff
of the Ministries of Education in the Caribbean
in education planning techniques required for
education sector plan and strategy preparation,
review and monitoring and to reinforce the
participating countries’ capacities.
Box 2.II:
Main Objectives of the Education
Planning Workshop
The main objectives of the workshop were to:
• Discuss the global context, rationale,
and process of education planning and
strategic planning;
• Offer the opportunity for stakeholders
from the Caribbean region to share
best practices and deliberate on issues
and challenges of preparing education
sector strategic plans;
• Review and assess the quality of
existing education sector plans; and
• Orient and introduce to the participants
the background, guidelines, objectives
and concepts of education planning.
• C@ribNET
The
Caribbean
Heads
of
Government
(CARICOM) mandated the establishment of a
Caribbean Research and Educational Network
(C@ribNET), to be coordinated andmanaged by
the Caribbean Knowledge and LearningNetwork
(CKLN)
11
.
10
-
february-2013-1
11
ticle&id=1224:suriname-to-host-4th-meeting-of-the-cdema-
council-of-ministers&catid=35:press-releases
CHAPTER 2: THE CARIBBEAN SOCIAL SITUATION
