Harmonisation of biosecurity laws in the Pacific

Given the importance of effective biosecurity systems for protecting plant, animal and human health, environments and livelihoods, PICTs are urged to review and update all their existing legislation that deals with the protection of livelihoods and the environment by: • developing consolidated, nationally appropriate legislation based on the regional harmonised bill, adapting it where necessary to suit national conditions; • undertaking national consultations and awareness on the content and coverage of the proposals; • ensuring the bill that is developed is assigned priority in the government’s legislative timetable.Given the importance of effective biosecurity systems for protecting plant, animal and human health, environments and livelihoods, PICTs are urged to review and update all their existing legislation that deals with the protection of livelihoods and the environment..

Alternative futures for the Pacific food system

The food system of the Pacific region is undergoing profound changes that will be felt for generations. The main pillars of food security – availability, access, and consumption of nutritious food – are being challenged by rapid population growth and urbanisation, shortages of arable land, and cheap, nutritionally poor food imports from burgeoning global trade. As a result, many Pacific Island countries and territories are now dependent on imported food, and the incidence of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) is among the highest in the world

Pacific youth in agriculture strategy 2011 – 2015 : echoing the voices of young people

Mainstreaming youth issues 1. All stakeholders must design programmes with youth participation in mind and actively seek the input of young people at all stages of the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation process. Consideration must be given to the type of platforms that will encourage young people to express their views openly. 2. Appropriate consideration must be given to the different needs of men and women and the different demands on their time. The additional cultural and social barriers that women may need to overcome to access support and resources must be considered when designing activities to promote their involvement. Young people with disabilities may fi nd it especially diffi cult to access support to engage in agricultural activities and may need additional support from stakeholders to identify and realise opportunities in the sector and eliminate discrimination. 3. Governments in partnership with other stakeholders must develop mechanisms, where these do not already exist, to coordinate the activities of all stakeholders involved in supporting youth engagement in agriculture. This should include the establishment of a national Youth in Agriculture Steering Committee to provide a forum for coordination and joint planning initiatives where appropriate structures do not currently exist. Such strategic partnerships will help facilitate the sharing and better targeting of limited resources and support learning from successes and failures. 4. All stakeholders must support youth development and facilitate the participation of young women and men in decision-making processes by ensuring they are given appropriate opportunities and responsibility to contribute effectively to their communities and workplaces. Governments and partners should increase the use of attachments and internship programmes that provide effective mentoring and capacity building for young people. Such programmes can assist in developing the leadership skills of young people, ensure their active contribution to development programmes and provide important work experience to support their career progression.The findings and recommendations of this strategy suggest the need for a more concerted effort at the family, community, national and regional level to support the development of young people and encourage their participation in agricultural activities and enterprises..

Understanding health profile of the middle-aged residents in Tsuen Wan

Modernization marked the progress of society and posed various changes to human life as well as the epidemiological transition. Improvements in public health care, living conditions, income and the control of infectious diseases were important factors in the first half of the twentieth century that led to the increases in life expectancy, while in the second half it was improvements in social conditions, health technologies such as antibiotics, and widespread immunization. The existences of advanced medical services effectively get rid of the prevalence of infectious disease that caused immediate human threats such as Measles and Smallpox. Given that technological advancement helps to increase life-expectancy, people are now likely to die of diseases associated with living longer, such as stroke or heart disease, rather than the traditional infectious diseases of bacteria or genes. As a consequence, it comes to an era of chronic disease which progressively causes irreversible damages to health as well as posing long term burdens on healthcare and medical sector worldwide. Considerable studies indicated that chronic disease developed through lifestyle risks and its severity is highly depended on how many cumulative risk factors that an individual exposed to. In regards to its own specific epidemiological nature, there are various terminologies such as ‘Lifestyle disease’, ‘Illness of the wealth’ occurs to identify all these distinctive characteristics and the term of Non-communicable disease (NCD) has been accepted as the official classification in Hong Kong. This study explores 1) The guiding framework of health promotion strategies. 2) The general health condition among the middle-aged residents in Tsuen Wan. 3) The prevalence of the major risk factors of unhealthy diet, smoking, alcohol consumption and sedentary lifestyle. 4) Possible recommendations on health promotion to the district

Trade and health: how World Trade Organization(WTO) law affects alcohol and public health

The alcohol field is becoming more aware of the consequences of world trade law for alcohol policies. However, there is a need for greater clarity about the different effects of trade on alcohol-related harm. Methods A comprehensive review of all literature on alcohol and world trade [including World Trade Organization (WTO) disputes on alcohol], supported by amore selective review of other relevant cases, academic reports and the grey literature on trade and health. Results The burden of WTO law on alcohol policies depends upon the type of policy in question. Purely protectionist policies are likely to be struck down, which may lead to increases in alcohol-related harm. Partly protectionist and partly health-motivated policies are also at risk of being struck down. However, purely health-motivated policies are likely to be defended by the WTO—and to the extent that policy makers misunderstand this, they are needlessly avoiding effective ways of reducing alcohol-related harm. Conclusions WTO agreements contain genuine and substantial risks to alcohol policies, and various ways of minimizing future risks are suggested. However, the‘chilling effect’ of mistakenly overestimating these constraints should be avoided. Health policy makers should decide on which policies to pursue based primarily on considerations of effectiveness, ethics and politics rather than legality. As long as any effect of these policies on trade is minimized, they are overwhelmingly likely towin any challenges at the WTO

Indicator guidelines for policy monitoring in the Pacific

This document has been drafted to provide a more complete picture of the indicator challenges faced in countries in the Pacific and to offer some guiding advice on how to tackle these challenges, including some general guidance on the formulation of indicators. In particular these guidelines aim to: • promote the importance of tackling indicator production in a more holistic way for reporting progress against global/regional/national/sub-national initiatives and plans; • provide guidance on processes for producing indicator frameworks for national policies or plans, including what constitutes a good indicator, through a set of soundness criteria; • improve the understanding of reporting requirements of priority global and regional initiatives, including how they can be addressed; • provide background material for Pacific countries to review and develop their own national indicator strategy2 (if they so wish), covering the following processes; º stocktaking of current practices; º assessment of what is working and where modifications could be made; º development of a new indicator landscape; and º potential adoption of a core set of priority indicators.Japanese governmentAcknowledgements................................................................................................................................vi Abbreviations and acronyms............................................................................................................. vii Glossary of terms................................................................................................................................. viii 1 Introduction................................................................................................................................................2 1.1 Objectives.............................................................................................................................................2 1.2 Who should read this document.......................................................................................................3 1.3 Background..........................................................................................................................................3 2 Understanding national reporting mechanisms............................................................................6 2.1 National indicator landscapes...........................................................................................................6 2.2 Identify reporting requirements.........................................................................................................7 2.3 Who should be involved in indicator development/selection for reporting processes...............9 3 Designing quality statistical indicators..........................................................................................12 3.1 Four dimensions of sound indicators.............................................................................................13 3.2 Importance of metadata..................................................................................................................16 4 Developing national indicator frameworks.................................................................................. 20 4.1 Key guiding principles overview..................................................................................................... 20 4.2 Establishing a plan to develop and endorse the indicator framework...................................... 24 5 Addressing reporting needs against global and regional frameworks............................... 28 5.1 Reporting against the Sustainable Development Goals............................................................. 28 5.2 Reporting against the Antigua and Barbuda Agenda for Small Island Developing States29 5.3 Reporting against the 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent......................................... 30 6 Managing all nationally relevant indicators................................................................................. 32 6.1 Understanding the complexities at the sector level.................................................................... 32 6.2 Benefits of a core set of priority indicators................................................................................... 33 7 Monitoring national, regional and global indicator frameworks........................................... 36 7.1 Establishing baselines and target values (benchmarks) ............................................................ 36 7.2 Reporting processes and challenges............................................................................................. 38 8 Guiding steps for developing a national statistical strategy.................................................. 4

Cost-effectiveness of reducing salt intake in the Pacific Islands: protocol for a before and after intervention study

BackgroundThere is broad consensus that diets high in salt are bad for health and that reducing salt intake is a cost-effective strategy for preventing chronic diseases. The World Health Organization has been supporting the development of salt reduction strategies in the Pacific Islands where salt intakes are thought to be high. However, there are no accurate measures of salt intake in these countries. The aims of this project are to establish baseline levels of salt intake in two Pacific Island countries, implement multi-pronged, cross-sectoral salt reduction programs in both, and determine the effects and cost-effectiveness of the intervention strategies.Methods/DesignIntervention effectiveness will be assessed from cross-sectional surveys before and after population-based salt reduction interventions in Fiji and Samoa. Baseline surveys began in July 2012 and follow-up surveys will be completed by July 2015 after a 2-year intervention period.A three-stage stratified cluster random sampling strategy will be used for the population surveys, building on existing government surveys in each country. Data on salt intake, salt levels in foods and sources of dietary salt measured at baseline will be combined with an in-depth qualitative analysis of stakeholder views to develop and implement targeted interventions to reduce salt intake.DiscussionSalt reduction is a global priority and all Member States of the World Health Organization have agreed on a target to reduce salt intake by 30% by 2025, as part of the global action plan to reduce the burden of non-communicable diseases. The study described by this protocol will be the first to provide a robust assessment of salt intake and the impact of salt reduction interventions in the Pacific Islands. As such, it will inform the development of strategies for other Pacific Island countries and comparable low and middle-income settings around the world.<br /