Sir Trevor Hassell (seated right), President of the Healthy Caribbean Coalition (HCC), with other delegates who came together recently to celebrate and plan the way forward for the Healthy Health Caribbean Coalition’s 2017-2021 Strategic Plan.
Strategic plan developed for HCC
Mon, 05/02/2016 - 12:00am
Civil society representing 24 NGOs from across 11 CARICOM territories came together recently to reflect, celebrate and plan the way forward for the Healthy Health Caribbean Coalition’s (HCC) 2017-2021 Strategic Plan.
Some 40 participants engaged in intense deliberations aimed at developing a draft framework for HCC’s upcoming strategic plan. This is the first in a series of consultations. The current 2012-2016 strategic plan expires at the end of this year; and was developed in 2011/2012 through a similar series of participatory processes. The packed one-day programme featured Dr. Karen Sealey, Dr. Beverley Barnett, Ms. Emma Hughes, Sir Trevor Hassell, Laura Tucker-Longsworth and Maisha Hutton, providing background and context as it related to HCC’s challenges and achievements to date; the national, regional and global reporting frameworks; and sharing of preliminary findings from the recently completed HCC CSO member capacity and information needs assessment.
Delegates agreed on the five strategic areas which will underpin the upcoming strategic framework: accountability, advocacy, capacity building, communication and sustainability.
A major outcome of the meeting was a collective agreement to support the advancement of the childhood obesity interventions in the Caribbean from
the civil society perspective. Participants felt passionate that this was a common area unifying their traditionally disparate disease-specific organisations; and they committed to work together to define a CSO agenda for action. With funding from the NCD Alliance, the HCC is currently developing a civil society action plan for childhood obesity, which will form the basis of this regional agenda.