Public Health Minister Volda Lawrence was elected Vice-Chair of the Executive Board of the World Health Organisation (WHO) during the just-concluded 71st Session of the body’s Regional Committee for the Americas.
A statement issued by the Ministry yesterday said Lawrence led Guyana’s delegation to the WHO meeting as well as 57th Directing Council of the Pan-American Health Organization, which was held in Washington, D.C., from September 30th to October 4th.
The statement said participants at the meetings probed a number of wide-ranging global issues, strategies, and plans to address the multitude of challenges facing the Hemisphere, including reducing heart disease by eliminating industrially produced trans-fatty acids, making access to organ, tissue and cell transplants more equitable, and improving the quality of care in health services delivery.
The Guyana delegation, it added, also participated in several events on the margins of the meetings, including discussions on “Response to Ageing Societies,” “Mental Health in the Americas,” the launch of the “Report of the Commission on Equity and Health Inequalities in the Americas,” and “Addressing Gender-Based Violence (GBV) in the Americas.”
Additionally, Lawrence also made a presentation on “Multi-sector Collaboration to prevent and respond to Gender-Based Violence (GBV) in Guyana’.
The statement added that at the 37th Meeting of the Council on Human and Social Development, which was held from September 28 to September 29, also in Washington, D.C., Deputy Chief Medical Officer Karen Gordon–Boyle, who was part of Lawrence’s delegation, was nominated to serve as the CARICOM representative on the board of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS).
