(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The Caribbean Community (CARICOM)-coordinated Pan Caribbean Partnership Against HIV/AIDS (PANCAP) will host a Consultation on Universal Access to HIV/AIDS Prevention, Care and Treatment, 14 -15 February in Kingston, Jamaica.
The Consultation represents one of the ongoing activities being coordinated globally by the UNAIDS Global Steering Committee, with the aim of securing major policy changes at the United Nations (UN) Special Session on HIV/AIDS, scheduled for early June of this year.
CARICOM’s Assistant Secretary-General for Human and Social Development, Dr Edward Greene is expected to Chair the consultation, which will be opened by Jamaica’s Minister of Health, Hon. John Junor, one of the main architects of PANCAP.
Co-Chair of the consultation, Dr Peter Figueroa, Chief Epidemiologist of Jamaica will deliver one of the main presentations on perspectives on HIV prevention strategies, while UNAIDS Senior Advisor on HIV/AIDS for Latin America and the Caribbean, Dr. Luiz Loures, will present the views of the UNAIDS Global Steering Committee on Universal Access.
The regional consultation follows several consultations that were held at the sub regional levels in Saint Lucia for the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), and in St Maarten for the Dutch, English and French Caribbean Overseas Territories. This is in addition to National consultations that were also held in The Bahamas, Belize, Barbados, Dominican Republic Guyana, Haiti, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.
The upcoming consultation will bring together over 100 participants from the Caribbean, including representatives from government and Non-Governmental Organisations, the private sector, civil society, faith-based organisations, representatives of people living with HIV/AIDS and donor agencies. The recommendations from both the national and sub regional consultations are expected to assist in determining the priorities for a PANCAP position to be presented at the June UN Special Session.
