Caribbean health leaders are calling for urgent action to strengthen regional health systems, warning that climate change, economic instability, and rising disease burdens pose serious threats to public well-being and development.
The appeal was made during the Fiftieth Meeting of the Council for Human and Social Development – Health (COHSOD-Health), held September 26–27. Ministers of Health, senior officials, and international partners convened to address the most pressing challenges facing the sector.
Grenada’s Minister of Health, Wellness, and Religious Affairs, Hon. Philip Telesford, who chaired the meeting, stressed the economic consequences of poor health outcomes.
“Diseases carry profound financial consequences, resulting in losses due to reduced productivity and rising healthcare costs. Such realities highlight that health is not just a social priority; it is an economic imperative,” he said.
CARICOM Assistant Secretary-General for Human and Social Development, Alison Drayton, pointed to the widening pressures facing the region, including non-communicable and emerging diseases, workforce shortages, crime, and climate-related shocks.
“Fiscal space for health is rapidly contracting, posing a risk to the gains achieved thus far,” she cautioned.
The meeting underscored milestones in regional cooperation, such as CARICOM’s endorsement of the Pandemic Agreement at the World Health Assembly, the launch of the PAHO-CARICOM Joint Sub-regional Cooperation Strategy, and initiatives targeting antimicrobial resistance. Leaders also advanced discussions on crime and violence as public health issues and reviewed progress since the 2007 Port of Spain Declaration on NCDs.
Health ministers reaffirmed their commitment to deeper collaboration and stronger systems to protect Caribbean people from mounting health and economic threats.
