Release Type: Press Release

Friday, 22 March 2024, (PANCAP Coordinating Unit, CARICOM Secretariat): The Pan Caribbean Partnership against HIV and AIDS (PANCAP), the mechanism that provides a structured and unified approach to the Caribbean’s response to the HIV epidemic, concluded the Eighth Meeting of National AIDS Programme (NAP) Managers and Key Partners in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago on Wednesday, March 20, 2024.

After two days of intense deliberations, participants explored various strategies to be utilised in scaling up their work on HIV and other STIs in their respective countries. Stronger coordination and better collaboration within and among governments, key stakeholders and partners, inclusive of civil society organizations must stimulate greater emphasis on relevant and accurate data collection as it relates to HIV and other diseases.

Discussions also revolved around scaling up HIV self-testing throughout the region, so that countries can reach their prevention targets with greater efficiency. HIV self-testing (HIVST) has shifted the paradigm for HIV testing, the first step in the care continuum. Through concerted regional efforts, the scale-up of HIVST will result in substantial progress in HIV testing, prevention, and care, and can result in countries conquering the first 95 in the prevention targets, in which people living with HIV (PLHIV) know their status.

The meeting further spotlighted the urgent need for the examination of the various national and regional policies and programme responses as it relates to HIV treatment and care, to reflect a person-centred differentiated model of care. Utilising the person-centred approach that simplifies and adapts HIV services across the cascade in ways that both serve the needs of people living with or vulnerable to HIV, can reduce unnecessary burdens on the health system within the region. Greater emphasis on person-centred care where the individual matters and not their designation must be paramount. There were discussions on the strengthening of efforts to shift diagnostics away from healthcare facilities. It was also proffered that sustainable systems for community-based delivery and expanding access to person-centred treatment and prevention services must be developed more broadly.

There were also discussions on the need for major emphasis to be placed on how children are treated within the general HIV response. Moreover, there must be more strategic efforts at anchoring the treatment of children into the various Maternal and Child Health (MCH) programmes available.

Increased use of ICTs must form part of the overarching regional HIV response, enabling advocacy, mobilization, and empowerment of people living with HIV (PLHIV), women, and other vulnerable groups. The use of certain ICT platforms reduces costs and can potentially reach people on a more targeted level. The use of telemedicine was also discussed as a means of accessing hard-to-reach communities that may pose a challenge to other forms of ICTs.

The need for strong, cohesive community responses was also ventilated during the meeting. To provide much-needed support to national HIV responses, there must be a heightened role for communities to play. These communities must have a more defining role not only in HIV but also in health generally.

Policymakers, programme managers, representatives of civil society organisations, the community of people living with HIV and those at highest risk for HIV attended the two-day meeting.

Knowledge Management Coordinator, Dr. Shanti Singh-Anthony thanked the planning committee and the staff of the PCU for their assistance in planning and organizing the meeting – the first since COVID.

Director of the PCU, Dr. Wendy Telgt Emanuelson thanked all the participants for attending and providing insightful input towards the many discussions held, and underscored the commitment of the PCU to assist countries in implementing the key takeaways from the discussions, ensuring tangible progress in addressing HIV/AIDS in the region. She also thanked The Global Fund, the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO), the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS),  and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID for their unstinting support in making this meeting a reality.

Wednesday, 20 March 2024, (PANCAP Coordinating Unit, CARICOM Secretariat): The Pan Caribbean Partnership against HIV and AIDS (PANCAP), the mechanism that provides a structured and unified approach to the Caribbean’s response to the HIV epidemic, commenced its 8^th meeting of National AIDS Programme (NAP) Managers and Key Partners on Tuesday, March 19, 2024, in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.

At the opening ceremony held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, PCU Director, Dr Wendy Telgt Emanuelson, delivered welcoming remarks complementing the excellent work done within the region during the past few years as it relates to HIV and AIDS. The many significant achievements, she underscored, are not just numbers, but represent lives saved, families strengthened, and communities empowered.

Dr Ayanna Sebro, Representative of the Network of National AIDS Programme Managers, and Technical Advisor, National AIDS Commission, Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, in her remarks, addressed the need for decisive action to address some of the lingering challenges related to accessing HIV medications within the region. “As we contextualise the implementation of activities and regional access to sustainability, funding, monitoring resources, quality prevention treatment and care across the Caribbean network, we must be intentional in our efforts around procurement and timely access to supplies to remain up-to-date in terms of our access for essential supplies and to mitigate stock outs. We must actively pursue agreements to facilitate access to newer supplies for diseases of public health concern are especially important where patents create obstacles.”

Mr. Ivan Cruikshank, Executive Director of Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition, in his comments, recognised the many achievements made within the region as it relates to HIV; central to which he mentioned the role of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs). However, he lamented the shrinking presence of CSOs since COVID-19. “We have to find ways of getting communities and civil society to be much more engaged in the treatment and care side of the pillars. Since COVID-19, there has been a decline in the presence and activism of civil society across the regional response,” Cruikshank said. “This meeting has to be a clarion call to governments to ensure that civil society remains vibrant and has sustainable resources to be able to support national programmes to deliver on these prevention targets.”

He further highlighted that “There are several opportunities presented across the region over these past few years to explore social contracting and to use social contracting or whatever variation of that modality we want to use to ensure that civil society continues to have a presence in our national response and support national programme managers.”

The Assistant Secretary-General from the Directorate of Human and Social Development CARICOM Secretariat, Ms Alison Drayton, recognised the commendable progress achieved in HIV prevention and treatment throughout the region but observed that many challenges endure. She urged that innovative initiatives to address those challenges commence with alacrity. “The UNAIDS 2022 Global AIDS Update furnishes us with a comprehensive snapshot of the HIV landscape in the Caribbean. The region has committed to ambitious targets, aiming for 95-95-95 by 2025 and the end of AIDS by 2030. As of 2022, we stand at 83% awareness, 68% on antiretroviral therapy, and 57% virally suppressed. To bridge this gap, we must expedite the adoption of innovative, evidence-based interventions such as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and HIV self-testing.”

Delivering the feature address was the Minister of Health of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, the Honourable, Mr Terrence Deyalsingh, who charged participants to look towards the future for a cure for HIV, particularly through gene editing. “If we want to hit 95-95-95 by 2025 we need to think exponentially. We need to think of geometric progression, not linear progression,” the Minister said.

In referencing a study from North Western University titled “CRISPR and HIV: New technique in human blood unveils potential paths toward cure – Key to possible HIV cure may lie in mechanisms behind how it replicates,” the Health Minister believes that the Caribbean should strategically position itself towards contributing to a cure for HIV.

“I think it is time for us to look as a region to join with one of those research universities so that we are in the door. In so doing, we would have contributed toward finding a cure, so that when that cure comes we would have access to it. I am challenging PANCAP to find a way to get on to the bandwagon of CRISPR gene editing to find a cure so that when that cure is found we can say that PANCAP was there; that we had skin in the game.”

CRISPR is an acronym for Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats and is a technology that research scientists use to selectively modify the DNA of living organisms.

Over the two days, regional technical partners shared their areas of support, aligned to the Caribbean Regional Strategic Framework 2019-2025 and the global HIV targets. This meeting concluded on Wednesday, March 20, 2024.

Friday, 1 December 2023, (PANCAP Coordinating Unit, CARICOM Secretariat): The Pan-Caribbean Partnership against HIV and AIDS (PANCAP), the mechanism that provides a structured and unified approach to the Caribbean’s response to the HIV epidemic, hosted a programme in observance of World AIDS Day 2023, on Friday, December 1, under the theme: “Let Communities Lead.”

While reflecting on those persons lost to the disease, sharp focus was also placed on the continued progress made throughout the years and the arduous work that is still to be done to end AIDS by 2030.

Deputy Secretary General of the CARICOM Secretariat Dr Armstrong Alexis in his remarks commended the successful collaboration and the tremendous work undertaken by civil society partners, who continue to work hand-in-hand with the Ministries of Public Health and National AIDS Programmes throughout the region, to ensure that vulnerable populations receive HIV prevention, treatment and care and, most recently, to ensure the continuum of care during the pandemic.

However, he observed that greater synergies must exist between civil society, other community-led organisations and the various regional public health ministries and agencies to bring an end to AIDS in the Region.  “I encourage our policymakers and public health stakeholders to strengthen the partnership with civil society and to empower our communities to tackle the persistent challenge of stigma and discrimination. We must continue to nurture and embolden our communities; it is only through this effective partnership we can achieve PANCAP’s Vision Caribbean free of AIDS and new HIV infections, in which all people are happier, healthier, productive, safe and respected,” Dr Alexis emphasised.

Dr Alexis further underscored, that, “While the percentage of people living with HIV with suppressed viral loads increased from 39% in 2018 to 57% in 2022, viral load testing coverage fell below pre-COVID-19 levels, emphasizing the need to address underlying inequalities and barriers, including HIV-related stigma. Hence, the critical importance of creating an enabling environment for our civil society partners and community organizations to take the lead in fighting the stigma associated with HIV,” PANCAP Director, Dr Wendy Telgt Emanuelson in her World AIDS Day message acknowledged that communities – the heart and soul of our fight against HIV – stand at the forefront of progress. Yet, despite their fundamental role, communities continue to encounter barriers hindering their leadership.

She stated that according to UNAIDS, funding shortages, policy constraints, capacity limitations, and restrictions on civil rights hinder the vital work of many community-led organisations. Moreover, by removing these difficulties, the push they bring to the global HIV response will be supreme, in bringing us closer to our goal of ending AIDS.

“The cost of not ending AIDS outweighs the investment required to do so. Removing barriers, ensuring an enabling environment, and safeguarding human rights, especially those of demoted communities, is central in advancing the HIV response globally,” Dr. Telgt Emanuelson highlighted.

Senior Project Officer for the Caribbean Regional Network of People Living with HIV (CRN+), Mr. Jason Shepherd, spoke to the intrinsic value of community involvement in the HIV response.  He said: “The role of communities is even more important at a time when funding continues to be reduced and a shrinking space for civil society is putting the sustainability of services and advocacy efforts in jeopardy.”

“CRN+ once again renews the call for the Greater Involvement of People Living with HIV (GIPA). Experiences continue to show that success is more likely when communities are proactively involved in ensuring their well-being. Communities have proven time and time again to be leaders in this work driving change and innovation, and they shouldn’t be hindered in those efforts; they should be supported and heralded for those efforts. Sufficient, consistent funding that ensures the continuity of community services is essential to keep organisations strong to continue meeting the needs of the people they serve,” Mr Shepherd underscored.

Communities across all levels, whether international, regional or local know what works best for them. They know precisely how to effectively communicate with their members to effect the type of desired response needed to mitigate the spread of, and ultimately eradicate HIV and AIDS from within their respective communities.

Therefore, as this year’s World AIDS Day theme boldly states: “Let Communities Lead,” it becomes a clarion call for considerable importance to be placed on strategically engaging community leadership in the AIDS response throughout the world, and even as together we in the region push to achieve not only the 95-95-95 targets but also to realise an AIDS-free Caribbean by 2030.

The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat is pleased to inform that during the Forty-Fifth Meeting of the Council of Human and Social Development (COHSOD) on Health, held recently in Washington D.C., Mr. Dereck Springer, a citizen of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, was appointed to serve as the Board Member for the Latin America and the Caribbean Constituency of the Global Fund Board for the period 1 November 2023 to 31 October 2025.

Mr. Dereck Springer is an Independent Consultant and a former Director of the PANCAP Coordinating Unit (PCU), CARICOM Secretariat. He is a public health and behavioral specialist with 30 years of experience in the health sector, primarily in HIV, Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights and Mental Health. Mr. Springer began his public health career as a Volunteer Counsellor at the Genito-Urinary Medicine Clinic, Guyana. His extensive experience in policy, program management and implementation at the national and regional levels has been facilitated by his work with civil society, government, regional and international development partners.

He served as Senior Advisor for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Global AIDS Program Guyana, UNAIDS’ Focal Point Guyana and National Coordinator of Voluntary Counselling and Testing for the Ministry of Health. He is a former Chair of the Implementer Group of the Global Fund Board and Communications and Governance Focal Points for the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) delegation to the Global Fund Board and was designated Board Member for the Forty-ninth Meeting of the Global Fund Board held in Hanoi, Vietnam in May 2023.

Mr. Springer provided transformational leadership for institutionalizing the Implementer Group of the Global Fund Board, brokered a harmonious relationship with the Donor Group and the Global Fund Secretariat, and successfully advocated for the Inspector General’s review and recommendation for increased funding for Implementer constituencies and provision of annual funding to support the Implementer Leadership and their engagement with the Board, committees, and constituencies while successfully advocating for continued Global Fund resources for Latin America and the Caribbean.

Friday, 8 September, 2023, (PANCAP Coordinating Unit, CARICOM Secretariat): The Pan-Caribbean Partnership against HIV and AIDS (PANCAP), the mechanism that provides a structured and unified approach to the Caribbean’s response to the HIV epidemic, is pleased to welcome its new Director, Dr. Wendy Telgt-Emanuelson, who was appointed with effect from September 1, 2023.

Dr. Telgt-Emanuelson will lead PANCAP’s dialogue with CARICOM governments, international donors and partners, and other stakeholders, in the continued implementation of a coordinated and structured regional approach for an AIDS-free Caribbean. She will lead the PANCAP Coordinating Unit to ensure the delivery of regional public goods that will support national programmes and advance PANCAP’s regional objectives.

Before joining PANCAP, Dr. Telgt-Emanuelson served as a National Consultant on Non-Communicable Diseases and Mental Health at the PAHO/WHO Office in Suriname.  She has vast knowledge and experience in public health policy development and implementation and has led a number of national public health programmes in Suriname.

A Surinamese national, Dr. Telgt-Emanuelson holds a Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Public Health from the Central University of Nicaragua, a Master of Science Degree in Public Health from Walden University, USA, and a Bachelor of Science Degree in Behavioural Science from Andrews University, USA.

Dr. Telgt-Emanuelson brings to PANCP a wealth of knowledge and experience in strategic health policy development and will certainly serve to advance the work of the Coordinating Unit in its programme planning and execution in the continued fight against HIV and AIDS in the Caribbean region.