(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretary-General, His Excellency Edwin Carrington on Thursday lauded the work of Pan Caribbean Partnership Against HIV and AIDS (PANCAP), which he said had “demonstrated the effectiveness of functional cooperation.”
Speaking via video tape to delegates at the Ninth Anniversary Annual General Meeting of PANCAP on October 29, 2009, St. Georges, Grenada, the Secretary-General stated that PANCAP, from its inception, had demonstrated the effectiveness of functional cooperation, expanding its partnership beyond CARICOM Member States to include the French and Dutch Antilles and other overseas territories, as well as the Dominican Republic and Cuba.
He underscored the support of international development partners, who had contributed more than 60 million US dollars over the past eight (8) years for implementation of institutional strengthening, care treatment and support, reducing stigma and discrimination, resource mobilization and the strengthening the governance of PANCAP.
“I am aware of the deep and abiding faith that many of our development partners have vested in this partnership: European Union, CIDA, DFID, Kfw, GTZ, USAID, UNICEF, UNFPA, the World Bank, IADB and the Global Fund and more recently CDC. I wish in particular to acknowledge the roles of PAHO and UNAIDS for bringing PANCAP into existence and for their technical and financial support over these nine years,” the Secretary-General said.
Mr. Carrington also noted PANCAP’s partnerships with the Caribbean Regional Network of People Living with AIDS, Caribbean Coalition National AIDS Programme Coordinators (CCNAPC), the private sector, faith based organizations and the political directorate of the Region.
The “vibrancy of this partnership,” he said, had resulted in successful engagements, particularly with the Inaugural Meeting of Champions for Change in St. Kitts and Nevis in 2004, where the idea of a regional stigma and discrimination unit was born and the launch of the Pan Caribbean Business Coalition against HIV and AIDS in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago in 2005.
Mr. Carrington stated that it was also “very heartening” to learn of the linkages that have been established between PANCAP and the CARICOM youth ambassador’s and Gender programmes in the execution of preventive strategies that reach out to the youth of the Caribbean, in particular, girls and females who are among the most vulnerable groups.
The challenge for the PANCAP’s network now, the Secretary-General pointed out, was in the implementation of its very ambitious Caribbean Regional Strategic Framework for 2008-2012. He stated that the Framework was very well conceived with critical linkages between regional and national priorities, but it required financial support.
The Secretary-General stated that the CARICOM Secretariat had pledged its commitment to working with PANCAP to achieve the objectives set out in the Framework, and called for the continued support of international development partners to assist with the necessary financial support for its implementation.
