Abstract
Background: The Caribbean region, with a population of around 17 million, has the highest burden of chronic noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) in the region of the Americas. It is estimated that diabetes and hypertension has an economic impact of around 5%-8% of the gross domestic product of the region. The purpose of this study was to explore and understand how global health diplomacy contributed to the evolution of a collective Caribbean regional summit declaration to address the epidemic of NCDs. Methods: A systematic review was conducted, and all the major databases such as MEDLINE, PubMed, EMBASE, Scopus, Web of Science, EBSCO, Global Health database and other available policy documents from various sources were screened. All articles available from 1910-2018were extracted. From the total of 3223 titles, after filtering, the search narrowed down to 28full texts that are included in this study. Policy documents and articles related to NCDs, global health diplomacy, and the Port of Spain Declaration (POSD) were the focused themes. Results: The Caribbean region showed significant commitment to the prevention and control of NCDs through its united voice and commitment since 2001. The successful rounds of negotiations for regional health have led to the formulation of the 15- point multisectoral POSD "Uniting to Stop the Epidemic of Chronic NCDs." This was the first Summit in the world where the Heads of Government focused on prevention and control of NCDs with a clear road map for policy implementation, collaboration, and collective action. This regional summit declaration gained global attention and resulted in the United Nations Political Declaration on the Prevention and Control of NCDs and as WHO Global Action Plan for the Prevention and control of NCDs 2013-2020. Conclusion: There is enormous scope for this evolving area of Global Health Diplomacy in addressing the future challenges of health security.
Highlights
The Caribbean region, with a population of around 17 million, has the highest burden of chronic noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) in the region of the Americas
It was estimated that the economic impact caused by diabetes and hypertension contributes around 5%-8% of the gross domestic product in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) region.[2]
After assessing the title and abstracts, only full texts were considered, and they are further filtered for “Health Security” and “Global Health Diplomacy” which yielded a total of 208 results which were further narrowed down by filtering with “Port of Spain Declaration.”
Summary
The Caribbean region, with a population of around 17 million, has the highest burden of chronic noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) in the region of the Americas. The successful rounds of negotiations for regional health have led to the formulation of the 15- point multisectoral POSD “Uniting to Stop the Epidemic of Chronic NCDs.” This was the first Summit in the world where the Heads of Government focused on prevention and control of NCDs with a clear road map for policy implementation, collaboration, and collective action. It was estimated that the economic impact caused by diabetes and hypertension contributes around 5%-8% of the gross domestic product in the CARICOM region.[2] The epidemic of NCDs is exploding in the region especially among the poor and middle class due to their exposure to habits like alcoholism, tobacco use, unhealthy diets and lack of proper access to preventive and curative services which leads to premature deaths and push the families into poverty.[3] Global health diplomacy (GHD) is an emerging interdisciplinary concept and was defined in different ways by various experts with different theoretical and disciplinary backgrounds, but there is no common definition agreed by all. According to Kickbusch et al,[4] GHD is defined as “multi-level, multi-actor negotiation process that shape and manage the global policy environment for health.” The study aims to explore and understand how GHD contributed to the evolution of a collective Caribbean regional summit declaration in Chattu and Knight tackling the rising epidemic of NCDs
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