Health practitioners from Saint Lucia and across the Caribbean recently gathered for a three-day seminar on Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) prevention and control, hosted by the Japan International Cooperation Agency at the Harbor Club Hotel in Rodney Bay.
The seminar brought together participants who previously attended the JICA Knowledge Co-Creation Training in Japan, offering a platform to assess progress, share experiences, and examine challenges in implementing national action plans to combat NCDs.
The initiative also received support from regional health bodies including the Caribbean Public Health Agency and the Pan American Health Organization.
Resident Representative of the Japan International Cooperation Agency, Hirohito Takata, underscored the urgency of addressing the growing burden of NCDs across the region.
“I can recognize that NCDs pose a serious risk to the region from a clinical, social, and financial perspective. Therefore, further cooperation is now being considered which will focus on emphasizing countermeasures against the risk of NCDs in the region,” Takata stated.
He noted that the seminar was designed to foster collaboration and identify solutions tailored to the Caribbean context.
“This is the context for this highly anticipated seminar which will identify the challenges as well as potential solutions for all the participating countries across the region,” he added.
Chief Medical Officer Dr Sharon Belmar-George highlighted the value of learning from Japan’s health systems, particularly its success in achieving long life expectancy and relatively low rates of non-communicable diseases.
“Japan is one of the countries that, in terms of their health data, we see longevity, their long lifespan, both for males and females, and also low numbers of NCDs, for example, in Okinawa and some of the other countries that we were able to visit within Japan,” she explained.
According to Dr Belmar-George, the exposure allowed Caribbean participants to critically assess their own healthcare systems and adopt practical solutions.
“So, the approach is that we were able to do an assessment of our health situation, look at the actual health situation within Japan, and come up with very realistic, practical measures that we can implement in country,” she said.
She further noted that the seminar aligns closely with Saint Lucia’s national health priorities, particularly efforts to expand universal health coverage and strengthen preventative care.
“With the government’s mandate of universal health coverage in Saint Lucia and also the strengthening of preventable diseases that we are seeing with the addition of our nutrition unit, these policies are exactly in tune with what we need in-country if we are to see drastic changes in our NCD outcomes,” she stated.
Dr Belmar-George also pointed to ongoing initiatives aimed at improving nutrition and lifestyle habits among the population.
“A lot of the information is what we are directly working on in terms of the changes that we want to see in-country, especially looking at the development of the nutrition unit, where the introduction of the MyPlate: A healthy plate initiative,” she added.
The seminar marks another step in regional collaboration to address one of the Caribbean’s most pressing public health challenges, as countries continue to seek sustainable and evidence-based strategies to reduce the burden of non-communicable diseases.