MINISTER within the Ministry of Education with responsibility for Culture, Youth and Sport, Nicolette Henry, has been elected chairperson of PANCAP’s Regional Coordinating Mechanism (RCM), while Professor Peter Figueroa of The University of the West Indies Mona Campus has been elected vice-chairman.
Minister Henry and Professor Figueroa were elected during the RCM’s first meeting which was convened from April 4-6 in Kingston, Jamaica.
The RCM is executing the new Global Fund Project. The three-year grant, in the amount of US$5,075,234 began on October 1, 2016 and will end on September 30, 2019.
The grant aims to contribute to the removal of barriers that impede access to HIV and sexual and reproductive health services for key populations, thereby promoting the achievement of regional HIV targets.
The sub-recipient is the PANCAP Coordinating Unit, sub-recipients are the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) and the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO), while the collaborating partners are the Caribbean Network of People Living with HIV and AIDS (CRN+) and The University of the West Indies Health Economics Unit (UWI-HEU).
Minister Henry expressed appreciation to the RCM for electing her to the office, while committing to take an inclusive approach. She called on members to contribute to the work of the body and thanked former Vice-chair, Professor Donald Simeon, for his excellent leadership and guidance during his tenure.
Minister Henry has over 20 years of experience providing technical guidance and support required for the planning, implementation, and strengthening of HIV public health programmes.
She served as a programme development and public health specialist (HIV Prevention) for the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Global AIDs Programme Guyana.
Minister Henry is a Ph.D. candidate in public health and is the holder of a Master of Public Health and a Degree in Pharmacy.
The new vice-chair, Professor Figueroa, stated that it is an honour and privilege to serve in this capacity and committed to work with the chair and all members to achieve the goals of the Global Fund grant.
Dr Figueroa is Professor of Public Health, Epidemiology and HIV and AIDS at The University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, where he has developed a doctoral programme in public health. He was formerly the chief medical officer at the Ministry of Health of Jamaica and for many years the chief epidemiologist and director of the National HIV/STI Programme in Jamaica. He is also a scientific secretary of the Caribbean Health Research Council and the former chair of the Priority Areas Coordinating Committee (PACC) and vice- chair of the executive board of PANCAP.

In addition to the election of the new chair and vice-chair, the RCM conducted an orientation of members on governance, oversight functions, management of conflicts of interest, and internal and external communications as well as a reviewing and endorsing of its oversight role and communications plan.
The meeting received a status report on the implementation of the new PANCAP Global Fund grant, which highlighted the programmatic achievements, financial disbursements and expenditures as at March 31, 2017 and provided strategic guidance to the principal recipient, the CARICOM Secretariat, on how to achieve the goals of the grant.