BACKGROUND
CARPHA’s mission is to provide strategic direction, in analysing, defining and responding to public health priorities of Member States in an effort to prevent disease, promote health and respond to public health emergencies. Regional outbreaks over the past decade such as Influenza A H1N1pdm01; Dengue, Chikungunya, Zika and most recently the COVID-19 pandemic, the spread of which was largely influenced by international travel and trade.
Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) is an essential element of good organizational governance as it enables a proactive approach to business operations and allows for suitable systems of accountability. It is a systematic and organization-wide approach, which supports an organization’s achievement of its strategic objectives by proactively identifying, assessing, evaluating, prioritizing and controlling risks across the organization. The objective of ERM is to help ensure the sustainability of an organization and enable it to meet its organizational objectives. ERM requires the implementation of an organization-wide risk management process; makes risk management the responsibility of everyone; and provides a coherent methodology for its implementation.
During recent decades, the expansion of the mandate and operations of some organisations of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), coupled with unstable economies, has resulted in an increasing volume and complexity of risks encountered by these organizations. In addition, these organizations inherently face unique challenges, such as a wide range of mandates and limited resources, a complex organizational structure and lengthy decision-making process, many objectives and lack of capacity, and reform backlogs. As a result, these organizations face a risk climate that is growing increasingly more complex and prone to significant operational surprises.