CARICOM/PANCAP COMES IN FOR PRAISE FROM THE GLOBAL FUND

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana)  The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat coordinated Pan Caribbean Partnership Against HIV/AIDS, (PANCAP), came in for praise from officials of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM), popularly known as the Global Fund.

The Chair of the Board of the GFATM and the Executive Director of the GFATM, Dr. Carol Jacobs and Professor Richard Feachem, respectively, and other representatives of the Global Fund on Friday 13 January met with a team from CARICOM/PANCAP which was led by CARICOM Assistant Secretary-General for Human and Social Development, Dr. Edward Greene.

The GFATM representatives underscored their confidence in the regional approach taken by CARICOM in dealing with HIV/AIDS, stressing that the evidence points to the success of this approach. “We believe in regional approaches as we recognise that many small nations can only actively and effectively access Global Fund finance through regional approaches. We can’t do it alone,” said Professor Feachem. He added that given the status of the Caribbean with a HIV prevalence rate second only to Sub Saharan Africa, the Global Fund is committed to supporting a range of projects and programmes.

The GFATM has approved US$4.5 B to nearly 350 grants in 128 countries and to date it has disbursed US$1.8 B. The recipients of grants include PANCAP countries such as Belize, Cuba, The Dominican Republic, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica and Suriname, as well as PANCAP itself. Overall, 60 percent of the funds go to HIV/AIDS projects and programmes.

In the Caribbean, the Pan Caribbean Partnership against HIV/AIDS, already identified as a “best practice”, is now focusing on accelerated implementation of the Global Fund grants to the Region, among others The agency’s Interim Coordinator Mr. Carl Browne stressed that the focus of the GFATM is to strengthen the capabilities of countries to accelerate their responses individually and collectively to reducing the spread of the disease.

The Deputy Programme Manager at the CARICOM Secretariat with responsibility for coordinating and monitoring implementation of PANCAP’s GFATM grant, Dr Morris Edwards, noted that by the end of April 2006, PANCAP would utilise US$2.6 million of its GFATM funds, targeted to four priority areas, namely human rights; care and support; prevention; and monitoring and evaluation

He also noted that PANCAP, despite the progress made in the implementation of its GFATM grant, had experienced some challenges, most notably that of inadequate capacity with several of its implementing partners. He informed that to address this issue, PANCAP at its Fifth Annual General Meeting in Trinidad and Tobago, in November 2005, had enlisted the support of its partners to garner technical assistance to accelerate implementation of the grant.