The Cuban Medical Presence in Pacific Island Countries: Strengthening Public Health Systems and Human Capital Generation

• In Event: From Cuba with Love: Cuba’s Development Cooperation in the Asia Pacific

Abstract

This panel analyses the phenomenon of Cuba-Pacific Islands healthcare cooperation as an alternative to dominant neoliberal health models in Oceania. Serious health, education, and security challenges have affected Pacific Island countries since the imposition of economic rationalist policy in the 1980s and 1990s. These range from a dramatic growth in the prevalence of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes (NCDs), to a recent surge in drug use and trafficking, alongside the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. One avenue pursued by Pacific governments, peoples, and civil society groups to address these challenges has been Cuba’s international medical training program.
A diverse array of programs, ranging from medical training to scientific collaboration, medication trials, as well as community health projects, have characterised Cuban cooperation with the South Pacific – in particular in Fiji, Solomon Islands, and Tonga, the three countries where field experience was undertaken, alongside Cuba, for this research. The panel presentation will seek to analyse the impact of Cuban medical training and associated projects in Fiji, Tonga, and Solomon Islands, in a bid to evaluate the effects on Pacific health systems and logistical concerns that can impede this cooperation. Ultimately, this research will demonstrate that South-South cooperation has allowed both Cuba and the Pacific to provide important socioeconomic services to their people, in spite of continued challenges presented by exclusionary neoliberal healthcare paradigms.

Author

• Sasha Gillies-Lekakis, University of Melbourne