Health minister intervenes at Commonwealth ministers meeting to rapturous applause |23 May 2017
At the 29th meeting of Ministers of Health of the Commonwealth which took place in Geneva Switzerland on Sunday May 21, 2017, one day before the start of the World Health Assembly, Seychelles’ Health Minister, Jean-Paul Adam, spoke passionately for the small island developing states and how the Commonwealth framework can be used more effectively to address the challenges they face.
Minister Adam was accompanied at the meeting by health principal secretary, Dr Bernard Valentin and senior principal nursing officer, Doloresse Pool.
At the meeting, Commonwealth Health Ministers discussed pooled procurement of essential medicines and health commodities, universal health coverage, non-communicable diseases, the role of health in global security, violence in the Commonwealth and sustainable health financing, among other topics.
To the applause of his colleague health ministers, Minister Adam brought his experience, as a former Finance Minister, to bear on the discussions.
He cited the example of cooperation between Seychelles and India, a small and a large country of the Commonwealth. Minister Adam said that through grants and lines of credit, India has helped Seychelles procure affordable but high quality essential medicines and health commodities.
He invited the Commonwealth to see this as an example to follow.
«The Commonwealth can also publish data on prices of health commodities and help our countries access them, to give us a stronger hand in negotiations,» said Minister Adam.
The health minister gave further examples of where multinational companies have lowered the price of health commodities offered to Seychelles because Seychelles was able to point to another similar country being offered a much lower price for the same product by the same company.
Minister Adam also addressed the issue of international advertising by multinational companies and how such advertising can affect local behaviour and lifestyles.
He said that multinational companies have a role to play in health promotion because although they may be contributing certain taxes to some local economies, many of their products, such as those containing sugar and alcohol, are detrimental to health.
«The Commonwealth can insert such matters in the trade agenda,» said the minister.
The health minister went on to address the discussions taking place in Seychelles around the «sugar
tax » and how it could contribute to changing behaviour.
The meeting of ministers of health of the Commonwealth ended with a Statement of the Ministers.