Senior health officials from 22 Pacific Island countries and territories will converge in Suva, Fiji, for the Fourth Heads of Health meeting from 27-28 April, 2016.
The annual meeting will be opened by the Pacific Community’s Deputy Director-General, Dr Audrey Aumua and World Health Organisation Representative to the South Pacific, Dr Yunguo Liu.
High on the agenda at the two-day event will be the development of a draft Healthy Islands Monitoring Framework to be presented at the 2017 Pacific Health Ministers meeting in Rarotonga, Cook Islands.
The 11th Pacific Health Ministers meeting in Fiji last year recognised the absence of a monitoring and evaluation mechanism and the need to monitor progress of the region’s Healthy Islands Vision, an idea developed by regional health ministers over 20 years ago which encompasses an integrated approach to health protection and health promotion.
Other key topics of discussion are the Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) Roadmap and support for the reigon’s health agenda priorities in an effort to help Pacific Island countries and territories achieve the Sustainable Development Goals set out in the 2030 development agenda.
The Pacific Community (SPC) serves as the secretariat to the annual Heads of Health meeting which was established in 2013 as a means of strengthening the regional health architecture and empowering Pacific Island countries and territories to drive the agenda and decisions affecting health in the region.