Former United Nations Secretary-General Dr. Kofi Annan will give the keynote address at the official opening of the Pan Caribbean Partnership Against HIV and AIDS (PANCAP) Tenth Annual General Meeting scheduled from October 31 to November 2 in St. Maarten.
PANCAP will commence observing its decade of existence at this AGM under the theme ‘Reflection and Renewal’, and the keynote speaker, who is also Chair of the Kofi Annan Foundation, will address several Caribbean Heads of Government, high-level government officials, regional and international representatives of the Partnership and other specially invited guests, the CARICOM Secretariat said in a press release.
Meanwhile, during the opening also, CARICOM Secretary-General Edwin Carrington, and Executive Director for the Global Fund, Professor Michel Kazatchkine will sign the PANCAP/Global Fund Round 9 Agreement on behalf of their respective institutions. PANCAP received US$31 million from that initiative.
Other highlights of the official opening include the inauguration of the PANCAP Award.
Several Caribbean citizens will be recognized for their outstanding contributions over the past 10 years to the region’s response to reverse the spread of the HIV and AIDS epidemic.
The Juanita Altenberg Award for Excellence conferred by PANCAP member, the Caribbean Vulnerable Community Coalition (CVC), will also be presented.
According to the release, the agenda for the meeting includes three special plenary sessions which reflect on the key successes and challenges of the Partnership and defines the essential agenda for its further progress.
Titled, PANCAP at Ten, the first session explores the main factors that have contributed to the development, growth and sustainability of the Partnership.
This session is intended to analyse critically main achievements, challenges and lessons learned.
The second session, ‘Towards strengthening the country focus on PANCAP’, seeks to obtain a country perspective of the main programmatic achievements since its inception and to provide concrete examples of how regional goods and services provided, have advanced the national responses to HIV and AIDS.
Session Two will also look at the ways and means by which PANCAP can assist Haiti in meeting some of its current and future needs with regard to universal access to HIV-related services.
Session Three, ‘Members’ Forum’, will receive the input of PANCAP’s constituents on what ought to be the future strategic directions of the organization, in order to maintain partner interest and to accelerate universal access to HIV-related prevention, treatment, care and support services in the Caribbean.
Meanwhile, a number of addresses will be given by key leaders in the region, including Sarah Westcott-Williams, Prime Minister, St. Maarten; Dr Denzil Douglas, Prime Minister, St. Kitts and Nevis and Chair of PANCAP; Michel Sidibé, UNAIDS Executive Director; and Professor Kazatchkine.
PANCAP is a regional Partnership which was established in February 2001 to respond to the HIV and AIDS epidemic in the Caribbean. Its vision is to substantially reduce the spread and impact of HIV and AIDS in the Caribbean through sustainable systems of universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support.
And by 2012 it aims to reduce the estimated number of new infections by 25%; HIV mortality by 25%; and the social and economic impact of HIV and AIDS on households by 25%, the release added.
