Leslie Ramsammy | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Minister of Agriculture, Guyana | |
| In office November 2011 –2015 | |
| Personal details | |
| Nationality |  Guyanese |
| Occupation | Politician |
Leslie Ramsammy is a Guyanese politician who is a member of the National Assembly.
He was appointed minister of agriculture on 28 November 2011, after the general elections, and served until 2015. [1]
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As a young man, he had ambitions to be a journalist but instead, he travelled to the United States of America to study microbiology. After this, he returned to Guyana during a time of political transition where he says he got "caught up in the development." And there he has remained until now, serving in a wide range of public office positions. [2]
Prior to his appointment as agriculture minister, Ramsammy served as Guyana’s Minister of Health for approximately 10 years, making him one of the longest serving ministers of health in the world. During that time, his passion and drive for better healthcare was recognized not only at national level, but at international levels, through his participation in various international fora and groupings. [3]
At the global and American regional levels, Ramsammy has served as the President of the World Health Assembly and the PAHO Directing Council, and he was the representative for Latin America and the Caribbean on the Board of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. [4]
At the Caribbean regional level, he has been Chairman of the Caribbean Community’s Council for Human and Social Development, Chair of the Caucus of CARICOM Ministers responsible for Health, and was recently named Chairman of the Executive Board of the newly established Caribbean Public Health Agency, CARPHA, which aims to integrate the current CARICOM specialized centres and more efficiently and effectively address the regional public health needs of CARICOM countries. [5]
From January to March of 2015, Ramsammy was a Menschel Senior Leadership Fellow at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. In this role, he taught a course in the Department of Global Health and Population titled, "Politics, Public Health, and the Right to Health."[ citation needed ]
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During his time as President of the 61st World Health Assembly, Ramsammy was allowed to vocalise some of his key philosophies on public health.[ citation needed ]
He believes that global health must be prioritized by Member States and that countries must be clear about their ambitions. "We are too conservative in our global health standards," he says in an interview. "A child born in Tanzania should have the same chance of survival and for living a healthy life as a child born in a developed country." [6]
He calls for a paradigm shift in which "we set universal standards that transcend national goals and for collective global action to help those countries who need support for meeting these global standards." As an ardent supporter of equity and social justice, Ramsammy cautions: "We should not be satisfied with reaching for the low-hanging fruit." He calls for global resources to be mobilized for more equitable health. [7]
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After independence in 1966, Guyana sought an influential role in international affairs, particularly among Third World and non-aligned nations. It served twice on the UN Security Council. Former Vice President, Deputy Prime Minister, and Attorney General Mohamed Shahabuddeen served a 9-year term on the International Court of Justice (1987–96). In June 2023, Guyana was elected as a non-permanent member to the UN Security Council. The country will serve on the council for a period of two years, beginning in January 2024.
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Guyana, officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern coast of South America, part of the historic mainland British West Indies. Georgetown is the capital of Guyana and is also the country's largest city. Guyana is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north, Brazil to the south and southwest, Venezuela to the west, and Suriname to the east. With a land area of 214,969 km2 (83,000 sq mi), Guyana is the third-smallest sovereign state by area in mainland South America after Uruguay and Suriname, and is the second-least populous sovereign state in South America after Suriname; it is also one of the least densely populated countries on Earth. The official language of the country is English, although a large part of the population is bilingual in English and the indigenous languages. It has a wide variety of natural habitats and very high biodiversity. The country also hosts a part of the Amazon rainforest, the largest tropical rainforest in the world.
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The Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) is a regional public health agency headquartered in Trinidad and Tobago which was established by CARICOM leaders in July 2011 and began operation in 2013.
A member state of the Caribbean Community is a state that has been specified as a member state within the Treaty of Chaguaramas or any other Caribbean state that is in the opinion of the Conference, able and willing to exercise the rights and assume the obligations of membership in accordance with article 29 of the Treaty of Chaguaramas. Member states are designated as either More economically developed country (MDCs) or Less economically developed countries (LDCs). These designations are not intended to create disparity among member states. The Community was established by mainly English-speaking Caribbean countries, but has since become a multilingual organisation in practice with the addition of Dutch-speaking Suriname in 1995 and French-speaking Haiti in 2002. There are fifteen full members of the Caribbean Community, four of which are founding members.
The nations of Guyana and Mexico established diplomatic relations in 1973. Both nations are members of the Association of Caribbean States, Caribbean Community, Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, Organization of American States and the United Nations.
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