Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. 16 March, 2026. The Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), in collaboration with the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN), today officially launched the GOARN Regional Outbreak Response Scenario Programme at The Brix, Autograph Collection. This progressive, landmark initiative underscores CARPHA’s commitment to pioneering innovative, Caribbean-tailored approaches and reinvigorating public health emergency preparedness and response across the Region. The Programme is funded through CARPHA’s Pandemic Fund Project, with CARPHA serving as the Executing Agency and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) as the Implementing Entity.
The Caribbean’s unique context—characterised by many small, highly interconnected islands, porous borders, heavy reliance on tourism, and vulnerability to disasters and climate change—creates significant risk for the rapid spread of diseases across the region, particularly amid varying surveillance and laboratory capacities. Recent years have seen increasingly complex and frequent emergencies, from devastating hurricanes to outbreaks of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases such as measles, dengue, chikungunya, and cholera. Coupled with increased travel, tourism, and migration, these realities underscore the urgent need for a well-trained, coordinated, and multidisciplinary response.
This five-day, high-intensity scenario-driven simulation exercise, which runs from March 16–20, 2026, brings together 24 public health professionals from CARPHA and seven (7) Member States, across multiple disciplines, including risk communication, logistics, surveillance, laboratory services, clinical management and infection prevention and control, highlighting the cross-cutting nature of emergency response. The GOARN global team includes technical experts from the United States and European Centres for Disease Prevention and Control, the University of Western Australia, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz (Fiocruz) Brazil, the UK Public Health Rapid Support Team (UK-PHRST) and Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). This week’s programme moves beyond orientation to operational simulation, placing participants in a realistic, evolving outbreak scenario designed to test their ability to respond under sustained pressure.
Delivering remarks at the Opening Ceremony, Dr. Lisa Indar, Executive Director of CARPHA, highlighted the significance of the programme for strengthening the Region’s outbreak response capacity. She shared, “The Caribbean’s dynamics demand a well-trained, coordinated, rapid, and multidisciplinary response, reminding us that an outbreak can arise with little warning, and the timeliness and effectiveness of our response can determine whether it remains a contained event or escalates into a public health crisis capable of overwhelming national health systems. The Caribbean context also forces us to recognize the need for an even more effective response to the next crisis and the continued need to strengthen our deployable workforce, operational coordination, and emergency response systems at CARPHA and across the region. This programme reflects not only the expanding recognition of the Caribbean’s and CARPHA’s role in global health security, but also our collective commitment to strengthening the region’s preparedness and response capacity.”
Armand Bejtullahu, Manager of the GOARN, emphasised the importance of strengthening regional response capacity through such initiatives, “Effective outbreak response depends on a ready, well-coordinated workforce. Through our partnership with CARPHA, GOARN is working to strengthen regional expertise and ensure responders have the tools and capabilities needed to act rapidly in emergency settings. Through these efforts, GOARN continues to operationalise WHO’s Global Health Emergency Corps (GHEC) framework, strengthening national capacities while linking responders regionally and globally for faster and more coordinated responses to public health events.”
The Honourable Dr. Lackram Bodoe, Minister of Health of Trinidad and Tobago, expressed his heartfelt appreciation to CARPHA, WHO GOARN, and their international partners for convening this landmark initiative. He noted that the event “marked not simply the start of another training exercise, but the continuation of a shared journey toward resilience, unity, and preparedness in the face of global health threats.”
This Outbreak Response Scenario Programme represents the second phase of the renowned GOARN programme, following the first of its kind, Regional GOARN Tier 1.5 Orientation to National and International Outbreak Response Workshop held in August 2025 in Trinidad & Tobago with 34 participants. This foundational training strengthened core deployment skills among CARPHA staff and 10 Member State responders.
By strengthening the skills of a multidisciplinary group of public health professionals from the region, this programme is helping to build a stronger regional outbreak response workforce that will shape how the Caribbean prepares for and responds to public health emergencies. Participants will enhance their capacity to support rapid, coordinated responses to emerging infectious disease threats, strengthening not only national capacities, but also the collective resilience of the Caribbean region. As the Caribbean continues to confront emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, sustained investments in workforce readiness, regional coordination, and global partnerships remain critical. Through initiatives such as this innovative Regional GOARN Outbreak Response Scenario Programme, CARPHA is reinforcing the Region’s preparedness architecture and strengthening its ability to respond decisively to future public health emergencies.
About CARPHA’s Pandemic Fund Project
CARPHA is the Executing Agency for its Pandemic Fund Project, with the IDB as the Implementing Entity. The goal of this Project, which spans from 2024 to 2026, is to Reduce the Public Health Impact of Pandemics in the Caribbean through Prevention, Preparedness, and Response (PPR). The objective is to support the reduction of the public health impact of pandemics in the Caribbean by building pandemic PPR surveillance and early warning systems, laboratory systems and workforce capacity, regionally at CARPHA and at country levels. This will reduce the transboundary spread of infectious diseases and improve regional and global health security. CARPHA is the beneficiary of the PF project and CARPHA Member States are the participants. Learn more via CARPHA’s Pandemic Fund webpage.
About GOARN
The Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) is established and coordinated by the World Health Organization (WHO) since 2000. The network aims to strengthen global health security by advancing public health emergency preparedness and response. Currently, the network includes over 320 institutions, encompassing national public health agencies, other government institutions, non-governmental organizations, and other technical organizations. GOARN’s focus is on enhancing country-level operations and strengthening regional development, governance, and partner involvement in key areas such as alert and risk assessment, rapid response, training, and research. By bringing together a wealth of expertise and resources, GOARN ensures that countries facing public health events can access timely support, and guidance to effectively contain and mitigate the spread of disease. Through its efforts, GOARN plays a critical role in improving global health preparedness and response, ensuring that the international community is better equipped to tackle the challenges posed by pandemics and epidemics.
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Photo Captions
The Honourable Dr. Lackram Bodoe, Minister of Health of Trinidad and Tobago, Dr. Lisa Indar, Executive Director of CARPHA and The Honourable Dr. Rishad Seecheran, Minister in the Ministry of Health.
Dr Edmund Newman, Co-chair, WHO GOARN Steering Committee Director, UK Public Health Rapid Support Team (UK-PHRST), UKHSA converses with Dr. Lisa Indar, Executive Director of CARPHA and he Honourable Dr. Lackram Bodoe, Minister of Health of Trinidad and Tobago.
Group photo of participants and facilitators at the GOARN Regional Outbreak Response Scenario Programme.