WILLEMSTAD – The Curaçao government has approved the National Suicide Prevention Policy Framework 2026–2030, “BIBA BIDA,” establishing a coordinated national approach to suicide prevention based on guidelines developed by the World Health Organization.
The Council of Ministers approved the framework on September 16 and also authorized the development of a national action and implementation plan covering the period through 2030.
The Policy Organization of the Ministry of Health, Environment and Nature (GMN) has been designated as the national program lead.
The framework is based on the World Health Organization's LIVE LIFE approach, which treats suicide prevention as an issue requiring coordinated action across multiple sectors rather than the health system alone.
WHO identifies four central evidence-based interventions: limiting access to means of suicide, encouraging responsible media reporting, developing socio-emotional skills among young people, and ensuring early identification, assessment, management and follow-up for people affected by suicidal behavior.
The WHO model also emphasizes several foundations required to make those interventions work, including analysis of the national situation, cooperation between sectors, public awareness, professional capacity, financing, surveillance and systematic monitoring and evaluation.
That helps explain why Curaçao describes BIBA BIDA as both an intersectoral and data-driven approach.
Suicide prevention under such a model is not solely the responsibility of doctors, psychologists and hospitals. WHO says effective national strategies can require involvement from education, labor, justice, government, communities, businesses and the media.
The Cabinet's decision establishes the policy framework but does not yet provide the details of how it will operate in practice.
Those details are expected to be developed in the national action and implementation plan for 2026–2030. The government announcement does not yet state what budget will be allocated to BIBA BIDA, which other ministries and organizations will participate, what measurable targets will be established, or when the implementation plan will be completed.
Those questions will be important because WHO specifically identifies financing, surveillance and monitoring as necessary pillars of an effective national suicide-prevention strategy.
The WHO estimates that more than 700,000 people worldwide die by suicide each year and advocates comprehensive national prevention strategies rather than relying exclusively on intervention after people reach a crisis.
For Curaçao, the approval of BIBA BIDA now shifts the focus from establishing a policy to translating that framework into measurable actions between now and 2030.