THE Pan Caribbean Partnership against HIV/ AIDS (PANCAP) will boost its ‘Justice for All’ programme in 2017, enabling easier access to prevention, treatment, care and support services for persons living with HIV in the region.PANCAP Coordinating Unit Director Dereck Springer told reporters on Wednesday that given a decline of external funding available to the Caribbean for HIV and AIDS programmes, Governments to a large extent have to finance these projects.
Several programmes have been lined up to create an extended lifeline of support and develop national strategies for HIV/AIDS-related programmes for those living with the virus in the Caribbean.
While Springer could not yet attach a total cost to the annual programme to address HIV/AIDS in the region should regional Governments put aside funds, he affirmed that attention will be placed on HIV reduction and discrimination.
This will be done so as to ensure key population groups have access to prevention, treatment, care and support services.
PANCAP has done national consultations in nine Caribbean countries and its fund grant will be geared towards persons having access to these services.
In order to accomplish this, several programmes will be put in place to engage Government ministers, religious leaders and other stakeholders, preparing them for the massive work ahead.
PANCAP will engage Attorneys General and Ministers of Legal Affairs through the CARICOM Legal Affairs Committee “to sensitise them, so that when there is that national discussion around, for example, the repeal of some of those laws, that there is that sensitisation” Springer said.
In the process of transitioning from being donor-funded to self-sufficient in the funding of programmes, PANCAF has plans of having rapport with Finance Ministers throughout the Caribbean to create greater awareness of the need to create national investment in Caribbean countries.
Springer also said that the regional organisation will engage policymakers in a bid to break structural barriers blocking victims’ access to support services and inspire change through policy and legislative reform to further support HIV/AIDS.
“A lot of the focus is going to be on policy and legislative reform which are these structural barriers to people being able to have access to services. And so working through the CARICOM organs … to really engage in what we call high- level advocacy to be able to bring about some of those changes, particularly as it relates to policy reform.”
Organisations which will be involved in such consultations include the Council of Health and Social Development (COHSOD). COHSOD is made up of regional Ministers of Health, Chief Medical Officers, National Aids Programme Managers and Heads of Governments.
PANCAP has also recognised that the religious community has a significant role to play in addressing issues that surround the “Justice For All” programme.
Religious leaders throughout the region will meet at a ‘Faith Leaders Forum’ in January 2017 to establish mutual understanding on the contributions of religious bodies in putting an end to HIV and AIDS.
A target group of regional parliamentarians will also be enlisted to support the programme through their role of holding Governments accountable.
“For example, that the resources are made available to address HIV and to address some of these barriers that we continue to encounter as it relates to stigma and discrimination,” the PANCAP Director said.
PANCAP is working with partner organisations such as the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) and the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) to improve supply-chain management within the region.
“If we can address greater efficiency in addressing that… how do we forecast for, for example, our supplies… we want to ensure too that we can get the best possible prices… we want to make sure that our drugs don’t expire… we want to ensure that we have a good sense of what is available,” he said.
He also noted that PANCAP will work with partners to increase efficiencies through more effective and efficient management within the supply chain, and will continue to collaborate with PAHO, UNICEF and UNAIDS to eliminate mother- to-child transmission of HIV.