Healthy lives, education and wealth: ecological relationships in social resilience

[EXTRACT]. A key feature of this special supplement of the Pan American Journal of Public Health is its focus on the state of chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in the Caribbean. The negative value chain impact is its effects on economic growth and childhood educational outcomes. Thus, there is an ecological relationship between interventions to support dietary diversity, improving successful transitions from school to work and economic growth in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). Since the 2007 Declaration of Port of Spain the region has made insufficient strides towards realizing the vision of reducing childhood obesity. In 2015, the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) endorsed a 6-Point Policy Package (6-PPP) to promote healthy food environments and reduce the incidence of childhood obesity. The strategy supports the Caribbean Plan of Action to Prevent Childhood Obesity and the 6-PPP comprises mandatory food labelling, nutrition standards and guidelines for schools and other institutions, food marketing and portion sizes, nutritional quality of food supply (levels of harmful ingredients), trade and fiscal policies, and food chain incentives, particularly for fruits and vegetables.

Translating research findings into useful policy for noncommunicable disease control in the Caribbean

The Port of Spain Declaration on noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) stands out as an exemplar of considerable magnitude, not only to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), but to the world. It was the first time that the Conference of Heads of Government dedicated an entire meeting to a health theme, giving NCDs the pre-eminence that fostered the organization of the United Nations High-Level Meeting on NCDs and its associated political declaration. This served as the platform for establishing NCDs as a problem requiring a multisectoral, whole-society approach. [...]