In order to increase PAHO’s country presence in the Eastern Caribbean, the Office of Eastern Caribbean Countries (OECC) was established in September 2006.  Its responsibility is to deliver PAHO/WHO’s technical cooperation (TC) in the Eastern Caribbean Countries and Territories, which are:   

• Anguilla
• Antigua and Barbuda
• Barbados
• British Virgin Islands
• Dominica
• Montserrat
• Grenada
• Saint Lucia
• St. Kitts and Nevis
• St. Vincent and the Grenadines  

In addition to a cadre of staff based at the Country Office in Barbados, seven Country Program Officers (CPOs) are strategically placed in the following countries to assist in the delivery of TC in the Eastern Caribbean.    

Location	Countries/Territories Served
Anguilla	Anguilla , Montserrat and British Virgin Islands
Antigua and Barbuda	Antigua and Barbuda
Dominica	Dominica
Grenada	Grenada
Saint Lucia	Saint Lucia
St. Kitts and Nevis	St. Kitts and Nevis
St. Vincent and the Grenadines	St. Vincent and the Grenadines

The Office of Caribbean Program Coordination (OCPC) and OECC share common premises in Barbados, kindly provided by the Government of Barbados.  These two offices are entities with different responsibilities and management structures. As of August 10, 2011, Dr. Merle Lewis is the PAHO/WHO Representative in the Office of Eastern Caribbean Coordination (ECC).  Dr. Ernest Pate is the Caribbean Program Coordinator (CPC) for the OCPC, which covers sub-regional technical cooperation. Both Offices are supported by a common administrative team.

 

PAHO in the Caribbean

There is a long history of PAHO involvement in the Caribbean, since Zone Offices were created in 1951 before any of the territories had gained their independence. The Zone I office in Caracas, Venezuela, had the responsibility for technical cooperation with the Caribbean Territories.


In the 1960s, as the countries became independent and formally joined PAHO as individual sovereign states, the role of the Zone Offices changed. In this post-independence era the first English-speaking Caribbean country to join PAHO was Jamaica on August 23, 1962. Other countries gained membership with the organization in the following order:

Date of Membership		Country
1962	August 23	Jamaica
1963	September 20	Trinidad & Tobago
1964	October 8	The Bahamas
1967	October 2	Barbados
	October 2	Guyana
1976	September 29	Suriname
1977	September 26	Grenada
1980	September 22	St. Lucia
1981	September 21	Dominica
	September 21	Saint Vincent & the Grenadines
1982	September 20	Antigua & Barbuda
	September 20	Belize
1984	September 24	Saint Kitts & Nevis

As the role of the Zone Offices changed Country Offices were created, each headed by a Representative of the Director. In 1975 the Zone Offices were designated Area Offices but Caracas still retained responsibility for much of the technical cooperation in the English-speaking Caribbean sub-region.

In 1978 the Office of Caribbean Program Coordination was established in Barbados in recognition of the commonality of health problems in the sub-region. This similarity of health systems originated in the common historical development and the long standing tradition of collaboration in health among these countries. Many of the resources were transferred from Caracas.

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At this time, in addition to the Office of Caribbean Program Coordination, the English-speaking Caribbean is served by Country Offices headed by PAHO/WHO Representatives (PWRs) in the:

• Bahamas (responsible for Turks and Caicos Islands)
• Belize
• Jamaica (responsible for Bermuda and the Cayman Islands)
• Guyana
• Suriname
• Trinidad and Tobago
• Barbados and Eastern Caribbean Countries

The Dutch Islands are served through the Office in Venezuela and other non English-speaking Caribbean countries are served through Offices in Cuba, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. PAHO has Centers in which scientific and technical resources to address one or more related areas are concentrated to support the needs of all the countries. Two (2) of these PAHO Centers are located in the Caribbean:

• The Caribbean Epidemiology Center in Trinidad and Tobago, and
• The Caribbean Food and Nutrition Institute in Jamaica

These centers are also supported by the CARICOM member countries. Together with the Office of CPC, the centers provide a unique network of sub-regional programs for the Caribbean.

All countries have access to all PAHO resources located at the Regional level, in other Country Offices and in other PAHO Centers through their designated PAHO/WHO Representative. Other PAHO Centers are:

BIREME	Latin American and Caribbean Center on Health Sciences Information, Brazil
CEPIS	Pan American Center for Sanitary Engineering and Environmental Sciences, Peru
CLAP	Latin American Center for Perinatology and Human Development, Uruguay
INCAP	Institute of Nutrition of Central America and Panama, Guatemala
INPPAZ	Pan American Institute for Food Protection and Zoonoses, Argentina
PANAFTOSA	Pan American Foot-and-Mouth Disease Center, Brazil
PAHEF	Pan American Health and Education Foundation, Washington, D.C

PAHO also has an agreement with the CARICOM Center for Environmental Health Institute CEHI with the purpose of stablishing a collaborative technical cooperation program in the area of environmental health management.

PAHO can also mobilize resources from selected national Centers of Excellence with which it has Collaborative Agreements. These are known as WHO or PAHO Collaborating Centers. 

Please click on the link below for information pertaining Member States and Quota Contributions:

Statement of Quota Contributions due from Member States