By Robert A. Emmanuel
Antigua and Barbuda will be host to a lecture series on ‘Transforming Health and Wellness: Use of Traditional Medicines! —Silver Economy’ as the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) released its 40th anniversary calendar of events.
The ECCB last week held a media briefing explaining the decision-making behind the planning of the calendar and the seven-part lecture series.
“There is a Lecture Series sub-committee, that comprises persons across the bank, economists and others outside of the bank that they rely on and what they looked at was the UN sustainable goals and the colours associated with those goals,” Deputy Governor of the ECCB Dr Valda Henry explained.
According to Dr Henry, the ECCB this year will be pursuing an agenda of “implementation” and the lecture series will look at the various areas that the region needs to address.
“Antigua has been, for a large extent, a leader in traditional medicine as I can think of a number of persons who are naturalists; there are strong leaning on that [medicine],” she added.
The World Health Organization (WHO) defines traditional medicine as the knowledge, skills and practises based on the experiences indigenous to different cultures, used in the maintenance of health and in the prevention, diagnosis, improvement or treatment of physical and mental illnesses.
“The question is how do we take those herbs—what are the uses, can it be used for everyone [and] what are the dosages—so we take these traditional herbs sometimes without understanding the implications,” Dr Henry noted.
The Silver Economy, also described as the Senior Market, is the name given to markets that meet senior citizens’ needs.
According to the Santander website, the three pillars of the silver economy is technological innovation, entertainment and training and jobs.
On the 28 February, Anguilla will host the first lecture in the series called ‘Food Security—Blue and Green Economy.’
St Lucia will be after Antigua and Barbuda with its series ‘Powering a Modern Saint Lucia—Green and Golden Economy’ scheduled for 20 April.
The Lecture Series in Grenada is scheduled for 18 May on ‘Medical Tourism: Prerequisites and Prospects—Blue, Orange and Green Economy.’
Montserrat’s lecture series is planned for 15 June with the theme of ‘The Promise of Information and Communication Technology—Yellow Economy.’
St Vincent and the Grenadines is sixth in the series with ‘Education and Training: Skills for the 21st century—Yellow and Green Economy on 20 July.
Last in the series is Dominica with ‘Leveraging the Nature Isle or Unleashing Dominica as the Nature Isle—Orange Economy’ on 21 September.