(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The Pan Caribbean Partnership Against HIV and AIDS (PANCAP) application for US$34.5 million was approved when the Global Fund to fight HIV and AIDS Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) met for its 20th Board Meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on 9-11 November 2009.

This is the ninth time the Global Fund Board has approved funding support for programmes to deal with HIV and AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria, and a total of US$2.4 billion in grant was approved in this round.

The PANCAP proposal received a Category 2 rating which means that arrangement can begin almost immediately to access the funds, once certain procedural requirements, including signing of the grant, were completed.

PANCAP Coordinating Unit (PCU) Director, Carl Browne, announcing the good news via email, noted that the journey had just started and thanked the entire PANCAP fraternity for its hard work which “has borne wonderful fruit for the people of the Caribbean whom we serve…. I have no doubt that the same spirit of collaboration that brought us this far will see through to the end”, the Director said.

PANCAP, established in 2001, is a regional umbrella organization which brings together national HIV programmes with regional and international organizations involved in the Caribbean’s response to the HIV and AIDS epidemic.