As we plan for the future, the stark reality is that AIDS is far from over. There are still pockets of increased prevalence, especially among vulnerable groups, including young girls. In addition, a compounding factor is the increasing lack of access to sustainable financing for programmes by CARICOM Member States due to their classification as middle income countries.
Hence there is need for redoubling of efforts at finding the resources to accelerate testing, treating and preventing HIV as well as to win widespread acceptance for policies aimed at eliminating AIDS related stigma and discrimination.
CARICOM Secretary-General Ambassador Irwin LaRocque in his message to mark World Aids Day 2015.
World AIDS Day provides an opportunity for reflecting on the successes and challenges of HIV and AIDS. It is also a fitting landmark for making resolutions and setting targets to end the epidemic.
The theme of this year’s observance “Ending AIDS by 2030 through Sustainable Development” is in keeping with the transition from the 2015 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). We in the Caribbean Community celebrate the remarkable achievements we have made in combatting the epidemic during the 2000-2015 MDGs era, through the efforts of the Pan Caribbean Partnership against HIV/AIDS (PANCAP) in collaboration with stakeholders in Member States. These include: reduced prevalence rates from 1.3 percent to 1 percent; increased access to treatment from less than 10 percent to approximately 50 percent; lowered AIDS related deaths by approximately 60 percent; and the fastest decline in new infections than any other region.
In addition we aim to be the first Region in the world to eliminate mother to child transmission of HIV infection and congenital syphilis. In that regard we will be following the example set by our fellow Caribbean country Cuba, as the first country in the World to have been certified by WHO as eliminating mother to child transmission of HIV and congenital syphilis.
As we plan for the future, the stark reality is that AIDS is far from over. There are still pockets of increased prevalence, especially among vulnerable groups, including young girls. In addition, a compounding factor is the increasing lack of access to sustainable financing for programmes by CARICOM Member States due to their classification as middle income countries.
Hence there is need for redoubling of efforts at finding the resources to accelerate testing, treating and preventing HIV as well as to win widespread acceptance for policies aimed at eliminating AIDS related stigma and discrimination. These are all elements advocated in the UNAIDS objectives to fast track the AIDS response and are in keeping with the UN High Level Meeting Political Declaration of 2011. These are also the principles established in a recent CARICOM-UNAIDS Cooperation Agreement which was signed last August.
The stakeholders in the Region – governments, parliamentarians, faith leaders, private sector, civil society and youth – are to be commended for their willingness to sustain the dialogue on what must be done to end the AIDS epidemic. In this regard, the emphasis has also been placed on accelerating the health and wellbeing of women, adolescents and children. This is fully illustrated in the Regional Commitment “Every Caribbean Woman; Every Caribbean Girl” coordinated by the CARICOM Secretariat and UNFPA as a significant component of empowerment, social justice and the human rights.
The theme of “Ending AIDS by 2030 through Sustainable Development” is a reminder of the integrated and multi-sectoral nature of the task ahead. It is a clarion call for revitalizing global solidarity to end the epidemic in the interest of achieving sustainable development.
