Leslie Ramsammy is a Guyanese politician who is a member of the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repre ...

. He was appointed

minister of agriculture An agriculture ministry (also called an) agriculture department, agriculture board, agriculture council, or agriculture agency, or ministry of rural development) is a ministry charged with agriculture. The ministry is often headed by a minister f ...

on 28 November 2011, after the general elections, and served until 2015.

Career

As a young man, he had ambitions to be a

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

but instead, he travelled to the

United States of America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...

to study

microbiology Microbiology () is the scientific study of microorganisms, those being unicellular (single cell), multicellular (cell colony), or acellular (lacking cells). Microbiology encompasses numerous sub-disciplines including virology, bacteriology, prot ...

. 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. 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 Health care or healthcare is the improvement of health via the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in people. Health care is delivered by health profe ...

was recognized not only at national level, but at international levels, through his participation in various international fora and groupings. At the global and American regional levels, Ramsammy has served as the President of the

World Health Assembly The World Health Assembly (WHA) is the forum through which the World Health Organization (WHO) is governed by its 194 member states. It is the world's highest health policy setting body and is composed of health ministers from member states. T ...

and the

PAHO The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) is an international public health agency working to improve the health and living standards of the people of the Americas. It is part of the United Nations system, serving as the Regional Office for ...

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. 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. From January to March of 2015, Ramsammy was a Menschel Senior Leadership Fellow at the

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health The Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health is the public health school of Harvard University, located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. The school grew out of the Harvard-MIT School for Health Officers, the nation's first ...

. In this role, he taught a course in the Department of Global Health and Population titled, "Politics, Public Health, and the Right to Health."

Ideology

During his time as President of the 61st World Health Assembly, Ramsammy was allowed to vocalise some of his key philosophies on

public health Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the det ...

. 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." 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.

References

External links

Parliament profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ramsammy, Leslie Government ministers of Guyana Malariologists Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Guyanese health activists