Caribbean News
CARPHA Spotlights Digital Health at its First Hybrid Research Conference
Kingston, Jamaica. 7 September 2022. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, digital health has been used to transform, connect, and inform public health, with mobile apps used for contact tracing; online learning platforms for schools and universities normalised, and CARPHA, as well as a range of businesses implementing teleworking for employees.
Now, under the theme COVID-19 and Digital Health: Transforming, Connecting, Informing Public Health, the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), in collaboration with the Government of Jamaica, through the Ministry of Health and Wellness, will host a combined in-person and virtual event from 15 – 17 September 2022. The three-day conference, which gives delegates a platform to network, share research and insights, will take place at the AC Hotel in Kingston.
“The focus of this year’s CARPHA conference is as timely as it is important; and aligns with the strategic priorities of the Ministry of Health & Wellness. Those priorities include the prevention and care management of non-communicable diseases – NCDs, which are a scourge on Jamaican and Caribbean society,” noted Jamaica’s Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr. the Hon. Christopher Tufton, speaking at the September 6th media launch for the conference.
“Our experience of the COVID-19 pandemic has shown us the value of digitisation to health system resilience. What digitisation does is to create the enabling environment for safeguarding continuity of care to patients through the offer of collaborative care, cost control and population health management. At this year’s CARPHA conference,
therefore, digitisation is being given the sort of attention it needs even as we provide the platform for learning and planning through knowledge and experience sharing, reflected in the array of research on offer from across the Region,” the Minister added.
Executive Director of CARPHA, Dr. Joy St. John said: “This 66th CARPHA Annual Health Research Conference is the first hybrid conference in more than six decades. CARPHA is passionate about showcasing and encouraging the conduct of research in the Region. Over the three days, we have a chance to enjoy the research findings that will be presented by our very own researchers: students, young researchers, research stalwarts. The good thing about this conference is the perfect blend of youth and experience, which makes for an exciting glimpse of the Caribbean from a researcher’s perspective.”
A series of events, including Town Hall Meeting; a Regional Health Communications Meeting, Training in Monitoring and Evaluation; a Workshop on Data Analysis, Dissemination and Use; and meetings and training on vector-borne diseases will take place leading up to the conference. A meeting for Caribbean NCD, Nutrition, Mental Health Focal Points will also take place ahead of the conference.
Presentations will include rebuilding after COVID-19: role of technology and digital health; Digital Health: Impact on Children; the association of birth weight and body composition during Infancy in 1-year-old Jamaican children.
Exhibitors from the Caribbean and beyond are set to showcase their innovations, products and services to delegates.
Feature speakers are:
- Loyce Pace, MPH, Assistant Secretary for Global Affairs, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
- Dr Joy St. John, Executive Director, CARPHA
- C James Hospedales, Founder EarthMedic and EarthNurse
- Dr Victor Blanchette, Professor of Pediatrics, University of Toronto, Canada
- Professor Seeromanie Harding, Professor of Social Epidemiology, King’s College, London
CARPHA will also honour health professionals who have served the Region and contributed tremendously to the advancement of Caribbean Public Health. This year’s awardees are Dr. Victor Blanchette and Professor Seeromanie Harding.
The Conference is the longest running health conference in the Caribbean and Latin America and attracts leading health professionals from across the globe. It attracts regional and international researchers, students and health professionals. Information about the Conference be found at http://conference.carpha.org/
By Deandrea Hamilton | Magnetic Media
October 14, 2025 – It’s being called political theatre — but for citizens, constitutional watchdogs, and democracy advocates across the Caribbean, it feels far more serious. Within a single week, two national parliaments — in Trinidad and Tobago and St. Kitts and Nevis — descended into turmoil as opposition members stormed out in protest, accusing their Speakers of bias, overreach, and abuse of parliamentary procedure.
For observers, the walkouts signal a deeper problem: erosion of trust in the very institutions meant to safeguard democracy. When Speakers are viewed as political enforcers instead of neutral referees, parliaments stop functioning as chambers of debate and start performing as stages for power and spectacle — with citizens left wondering who, if anyone, is still accountable.
October 6: St. Kitts Parliament Erupts
The first walkout erupted in Basseterre on October 6, 2025, when Dr. Timothy Harris, former Prime Minister and now Opposition Leader,
led his team out of the St. Kitts and Nevis National Assembly in a protest that stunned the chamber.
The flashpoint came as the Speaker moved to approve more than three years’ worth of unratified parliamentary minutes in one sitting — covering 27 meetings and three national budgets — without individual review or debate.
Dr. Harris called the move “a flagrant breach of the Constitution and parliamentary tradition,” warning that the practice undermines transparency and accountability. “No serious parliament can go years without approving a single set of minutes,” he said after exiting the chamber.
The Speaker defended the decision as administrative housekeeping, but critics were unconvinced, branding the move a “world record disgrace.” The opposition’s walkout triggered renewed calls for the Speaker’s resignation and sparked a wider public discussion about record-keeping, accountability, and respect for parliamentary norms in St. Kitts and Nevis.
October 10: Trinidad Opposition Follows Suit
Four days later, on October 10, 2025, the Opposition United National Congress (UNC) in Trinidad and Tobago staged its own walkout from the House of Representatives in Port of Spain.
The UNC accused the Speaker of partisan bias, claiming she had repeatedly blocked urgent questions, ignored points of order, and allowed government members to breach standing orders without consequence.
“The Speaker has failed in her duty to act impartially,” the Opposition declared in a statement. “Parliament is not the property of any political party or Presiding Officer.”
The dramatic exit was seen as a culmination of months of rising tension and frustration, with opposition MPs arguing that parliamentary rules were being selectively applied to silence dissenting voices.
Political analyst Dr. Marcia Ferdinand described the twin walkouts as “a warning sign that parliamentary democracy in the Caribbean is teetering on the edge of performative politics.”
“When chairs become political shields rather than constitutional referees,” she said, “democracy becomes theatre, not governance.”
A Pattern Emerging
While St. Kitts and Trinidad are very different political environments, both incidents point to the same regional fault line: the perception that Speakers — the guardians of parliamentary order — are no longer impartial.
In Westminster-style systems like those across the Caribbean, the Speaker’s authority depends not on power but on public confidence in fairness. Once that credibility erodes, parliamentary control collapses into confrontation.
Governance experts say the implications are serious: eroded trust between government and opposition, declining public confidence in state institutions, and growing voter cynicism that “rules” are flexible tools of political advantage.
Why It Matters
Parliamentary walkouts are not new in the Caribbean, but what makes these recent events different is their frequency and intensity — and
the regional echo they’ve created. Social media has amplified images of lawmakers storming out, with citizens from Barbados to Belize questioning whether the same erosion of decorum could be happening in their own legislatures.
Analysts warn that if this perception takes hold, it risks diminishing the moral authority of parliamentary democracy itself.
“Once opposition MPs believe the rules are rigged, and once citizens believe Parliament is just performance,” said one Caribbean governance researcher, “you’ve lost the most valuable currency in democracy — trust.”
Restoring Balance
Political reformers across the region are calling for tighter Standing Order enforcement, independent parliamentary service commissions, and training to strengthen Speaker neutrality. Civil society leaders say the public must also play its part by demanding transparency and refusing to normalize partisan manipulation of parliamentary procedure.
Whether these twin walkouts become catalysts for reform — or simply another episode of Caribbean political theatre — will depend on what happens next inside those chambers.
For now, democracy watchers agree on one thing: when opposition leaders feel the only way to be heard is to walk out, the entire democratic house — not just its Speaker — is in danger of collapse.
Angle by Deandrea Hamilton. Built with ChatGPT (AI). Magnetic Media — CAPTURING LIFE.
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