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The evaluation of the Caribbean Regional Strategic Framework (CRSF) 2014-2018 was completed and was accepted by the Priority Areas Coordinating Committee (PACC) and the Executive Board earlier this month. Among other findings, the evaluation revealed that while the Caribbean has made progress in responding to the HIV epidemic, the impact of the prevention response has been inadequate, particularly among key populations.

The evaluation reinforced the critical need for member states to invest in activities to achieve prevention and the UNAIDS 90-90-90 Targets. The Board called upon countries and the Partnership to renew efforts to build capacity and work together to achieve the targets. Members noted the legal judgments in Caribbean courts affirming human rights arising from litigation and called on countries not to wait on litigation but to make amendments to laws to recognize the rights of key populations and the rights of all to access sexual and reproductive health services. The board also noted that while tens of thousands of cases of HIV infections have been prevented there is a critical need to significantly reduce new infections. This requires countries to promote age-appropriate sexual education and skills and extend sexual reproductive health services to all youth and key populations. Members recommended the introduction of innovative prevention approaches and the improvement of prevention services to ensure greater impact in reducing new HIV infections.

The Board also called on the PACC to develop a new CRSF for the period 2019 to 2023 and agreed on the following strategic priority areas:

• An Enabling Environment
• Prevention of HIV Transmission
• Care, Treatment and Support
• Integrate HIV into Health and Socioeconomic Development
• Sustainability
• Strategic Information, Monitoring and Evaluation and Research.

The evaluation also reinforced the critical need for PANCAP to accelerate the implementation of its Resource Mobilization Strategy 2018-2020 to buffer member states as they fully transition to domestic resources for HIV. We need to work with member states to get more people to know their HIV status, retain more people on treatment and get more people virally suppressed. We must intensify our efforts to achieve the 90-90-90 Targets by the end of 2020.

The PANCAP Advisory Group on Resource Mobilization will meet in the middle of February to discuss and agree on strategies for increasing our donor base including the private sector. The Group will also explore how to stimulate creative and innovative fundraising that would be developed and packaged in a very competitive way to attract potential funders/sponsors without compromising the strategic interests of PANCAP. We look forward to using the innovative strategies agreed to accelerate the implementation of the Resource Mobilization Strategy 2018-2020.

Image: (L-R) Parliamentarians Hon. Nigel Dharamlall, M.P., Hon. Gail Teixeira, M.P., of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), Managing Director of SASOD Guyana, Mr Joel Simpson and Hon. Dr Nicolette Henry, M.P, Minister of Education (Guyana). 

In December 2018, Guyana’s Society against Sexual Orientation Discrimination (SASOD) celebrated its 15th anniversary with a cocktail reception at the Impeccable Banquet Hall in Georgetown, Guyana. For over 15 years, SASOD Guyana has been a dedicated voice for the LGBTQ+ Guyanese and has promoted non-discrimination and equality in the country and the Caribbean region.

The Hon. Dr Nicolette Henry, M.P, Minister of Education, delivered special remarks on behalf of the Government of Guyana. Minister Henry spoke about SASOD’s notable achievements on local, regional, and international stages such as engaging local government, leading public education and sensitization on gender and sexual diversity, and providing essential services to Guyana’s most marginalized citizens.

Minister Henry also commended SASOD for the recent victory at the Caribbean Court of Justice where the organization played a critical role in demolishing a colonial-era law that criminalized cross-dressing and disproportionately penalized transgender and gender non-conforming persons. She said that this landmark decision highlights the fact that outdated laws do not reflect the current realities and values of inclusion and cohesion in Guyana today. The Minister confirmed the Government’s commitment to ending all forms of discrimination and fulfilling the promise of equality and a good life for all Guyanese.

Founder and Managing Director, Joel Simpson, spoke on behalf of SASOD Guyana. Simpson spoke fondly of the humble beginnings of the grassroots movement as a student-led lobby group, and proudly of the acclaimed, influential movement, it has become.

“SASOD Guyana has represented the LGBTQ+ community for the past 15 years and has used every opportunity possible to hold the state accountable for its human rights obligations. SASOD will continue to advocate for equality and inclusion of all persons in Guyana”, stated the Managing Director.

Also in attendance were Opposition Chief Whip, Hon. Gail Teixeira, M.P., and Hon. Nigel Dharamlall, M.P., of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP). The two PPP parliamentarians joined the Education Minister and Simpson in cutting the SASOD 15th Anniversary cake.

The celebratory event was supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and COC Netherlands, a Dutch organization that supports LGBT people.

In December 2018, three civil society partners, “Care 242”, “The DMARCO Organization” and the “Bahamian Transgender Empowerment for Healthy Living” (BTEHL) collaborated with corporate entities in the Bahamas to bring holiday cheer by providing personal care supplies and psychosocial support to residents of “The All Saints Camp”, an organization focused on People Living with HIV (PLHIV) located in Nassau, New Providence, The Bahamas.

The collaboration is depicted in the images below:

Image: SASOD Guyana Public Health Consultant Dr Nastassia Rambarran (left) and Managing Director Joel Simpson with Junior Health Minister Dr Karen Cummings (second, from left) and Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Karen Campbell

In January 2019, the Society against Sexual Orientation Discrimination (SASOD) Guyana Public Health Consultant Dr. Nastassia Rambarran and Managing Director Joel Simpson met with Junior Health Minister Dr. Karen Cummings and Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr. Karen Campbell to discuss recommendations stemming from the organization’s “Assessment of Knowledge, Attitudes and Delivery Preferences for HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) among Key Populations in Guyana.”

In a brief statement, SASOD Guyana said the meeting agreed that a study on the cost-effectiveness of implementing PrEP in terms of averting new infections would strengthen public policy in this area.

As a result, it announced that it has accepted the challenge to find resources and complete the cost-effectiveness study within the next six months. Based on its assessment, SASOD had called last year on the Government to include PrEP as part of its combination prevention approach for adult HIV infections.

One of the key findings of the assessment revealed that in Guyana knowledge of PrEP appears to be minimal, with 60% of the 47 participants stating that they did not know of PrEP, while a significant number of those who claimed to be aware of the option were actually confusing PrEP with Post-exposure Prophylaxis (PEP).

The assessment was conducted via focus groups in Regions Three, Four, Five, Six and Ten, with financial support from the International HIV and AIDS Alliance’s Rapid Response Fund.

Following research on its effectiveness, the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2014 recommended PrEP as an additional HIV prevention choice for groups, such as men who have sex with men and transgender women. This recommendation was extended to all groups in 2015.

Image: Richard David with Joel Earl Simpson (bottom row, third and fourth from left, respectively) with community leaders and attendees at “Equality in Guyana”.

Guyana is the only country in South America where intimacy between a same-sex couple is still illegal. The statute on the books is antiquated as it originated from British colonial days. There could be a window to change this in the near future.

On Saturday, 5 January 2019, Richard David, District Leader of NYS Assembly District 32 hosted a conversation with Joel Earl Simpson, Founding and Managing Director of the Society against Sexual Orientation Discrimination (SASOD) at The Figure Studio in South Ozone Park. Titled “Equality in Guyana,” the event addressed specifically how equal rights can become an election issue in Guyana and how the diaspora can help to promote equal rights, even from afar.

“With elections on the horizon, we want the parties and their candidates to speak favourably about human rights and equality for LGBTQ Guyanese,” said David. “When they come to New York for support, we should be asking them for a plan, a timeframe, a clear position on this issue because they have both abandoned it once in office. This issue brings all ethnicities together, and it is why we have brought together a coalition of community leaders in New York.”

Among that coalition of leaders were co-sponsoring partners including SASOD USA Diaspora Network, Caribbean Equality Project, Indo-Caribbean Alliance, Inc., Guyana Tri-State Alliance, Sadhana Coalition of Progressive Hindus, New American Voters Association, Indian Diaspora Council, Guyanese Girls Rock Foundation, The Figure Studio and Jahajee Sisters.

The event underscored the important roles that community-based organizations and religious institutions in New York City could play in bringing forward a progressive legal ruling in Guyana as it pertains to homophobic policies. As Joel Earl Simpson of SASOD mentioned at the event, if the statutory language were removed, Guyana would follow countries like India, which recently repealed Section 377 of its Constitution and the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, which repealed its Sexual Offences Act, along with other countries like Kenya and Singapore.

David also sought to create a space where Guyanese residents in New York City could have community conversations about positive matters. At the event, David mentioned that the neighbourhood is “thriving with religious groups, clothing stores and cutting-edge entrepreneurs who are just out of college and looking to become small business owners. It is therefore important that the neighbourhood is understood and loved for all the great things it has to offer, rather than all the negativity often pitched by media outlets that blemish the community’s reputation”.

Inviting Simpson to South Ozone Park for a high-level conversation on Guyanese policy provided a chance for community leaders and concerned members of the diaspora to present questions and express support of Simpson’s efforts. Simpson himself has an illustrious background, with a Law Degree and a Master’s Degree in Human Rights Law.

David’s conversation with Simpson also paved the way for impacted individuals like Twinkle, also with SASOD, to tell their personal stories. Twinkle, who recently migrated from Guyana to New York City, is a transgender woman and hate crime victim who was denied access to the Guyana Court System simply because she presented as a transgender woman.

“Supporting work and activists on the ground has always been, for me, the key to building sustainable change,” said David. “There is no stronger leader than Joel Earl Simpson and SASOD who are at the grassroots. They are winning hearts and minds, even as they mobilize to take legal action. I hope all Guyanese will find it in their conscience that the LGBTQ community deserves to live as equal citizens.”

Sustainability of youth advocacy beyond donor funding will be the focus of the upcoming Meeting of Youth Leaders scheduled for May 2019. The editor of the PANCAP Newsletter recently discussed the upcoming event with PANCAP Youth Network Chair, Kevin Mendez, who has helmed the PANCAP Youth response to HIV for the last two years.

The Chair expressed enthusiasm about the meeting and explained that it will “serve as a platform to present and organize the youth sexual and reproductive health advocacy efforts exercised by youth leaders, key population members, and Caribbean Youth Ambassadors in their countries and the region”.

The Chair further explained that the Youth Meeting would be a space to celebrate the achievements of the Youth Network and most importantly, critically analyze the current situation regarding youths’ vulnerability to HIV. Participants will also collaborate to develop a “call to action” aimed at decision makers and the network’s sustainable strategic plan post-Global Fund grant.

“As we meet for the third time with the support of PANCAP, sustainability – through partnership – is at the core of our discussions”, stated Kevin.

He further explained, “The Steering Committee is active in identifying local, regional and international organizations and government allies to commit to integrating the advocacy efforts into their existing strategies and how together we can continue improving youth’s access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health services and our rights”.

“As the planning continues, we are excited for the outcomes of this creative, fun, inclusive and invaluable conference,” stated the Chair.

Press Release:– Efforts to continue developing a framework to overcome HIV, TB and STIs as a public health threat by 2022 are underway as the OECS Regional Coordinating Mechanism (RCM) and Global Fund met recently.

The OECS RCM is making preparations to sign another three –year grant proposal with the Global Fund aimed at eliminating HIV, TB and Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs).

The project will operate in six participating OECS Member States: St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Antigua and Barbuda, St. Lucia, Dominica, St. Kitts and Nevis and Grenada.

Project Coordinator for the OECS HIV/TB Grant Dr Cleophas D’Auvergne highlighted the goals of this project.

“The major goals of the grant are to reduce the incidence of HIV in line with the 90-90-90 Targets and also move towards TB elimination using a framework for low incidence countries because most of the OECS countries are low incidence countries. The second goal is to improve services for key populations for HIV, TB and STIs. And, ensuring that these services are accessible and affordable.”

Minister for Health and Wellness Sen. Hon. Mary Isaac says the project is extremely important to Saint Lucia as it addresses a critical need for persons with HIV, TB and STIs.

“This grant is aimed at assisting persons living with HIV as well as TB and other STIs. This is a population that we usually don’t remember exists, but they are quite challenged in that there is a lot of stigma attached to these people. So, funding like that comes at a time when it is extremely critical that these people have the ability to access their medications and manage other health issues that they might have.”

The project is being co-funded by the Global Fund for over US $5.5 million dollars for the period of three years spanning April 2019 to April 2022.

The year 2018 is rapidly drawing to a close. I would like to share my reflections on some key achievements during this year. There has been further assessment of our progress and gaps in the response through the evaluation of the Caribbean Regional Strategic Framework on HIV and AIDS 2014-2018 and the mid-term evaluation of the CARICOM-PANCAP and UNDP-CVC-COIN Global Fund projects. These assessments will be used to inform the development of the new CRSF and adjustment to Global Fund grant activities to achieve the desired outcomes.

PANCAP continued to make its presence felt, expand knowledge sharing and communicate its added value to the region through its Knowledge for Health Project.

A key output of the PANCAP component of the CARIFORUM 10th European Development Fund was a position paper on the human rights situation in the region, which brought together the achievements, gaps, and challenges in one document while highlighting the critical need for justice system reform as a means of increasing key populations’ access to justice.

A Framework for Migrant Health and Rights was developed to serve as a pragmatic approach to migrant populations, which recognizes that a non-discriminatory strategy for public health benefits the entire population. The Framework is rationalized with the vision of regionalism under the CSME and sets out guiding principles and recommended strategies for regional and national action. It was endorsed by the 35th COHSOD – Ministers of Health and operationalization will begin in 2019.

Our youth have been engaging in high-level advocacy with ministers of health and education around issues of sexual and reproductive health and rights. There has been joint dialogue between faith leaders and other groups including key populations, youth, NAP managers and civil society leaders. These engagements are aimed at increasing youth’s access to SRH services, integration of comprehensive sexuality education and development and implementation of gender-inclusive policies and integration of comprehensive sexuality education into the Health and Family Life Education curriculum, as well as the adoption of CARICOM Anti-Discrimination Legislation by countries.

We continue to engage in dialogue regarding the judgmental attitudes towards LGBTI persons and justice for key populations following the Trinidad and Tobago High Court Ruling that the Buggery Law is unconstitutional and the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) Ruling that Guyana’s Crossdressing law is unconstitutional.

We have seen greater ownership of the Partnership by its members through shared responsibility. While external funding is steadily declining, donors are supporting the region to transition responsibly.

The Partnership was supported by USAID-Abt Associates Health Finance and Governance Project to revise the PANCAP Resource Mobilisation Strategy and Plan 2018-2020 to garner resources to support the achievement of regional goals and targets articulated in the Caribbean Regional Strategic Framework on HIV and AIDS.

PANCAP-CVC-COIN joined forces to submit a proposal to the Global Fund in the amount of US$6.5 million over three years. The consortium has been requested to proceed to grantmaking following the Technical Review Panel’s approval. PEPFAR-USAID approved another year of funding for the fiscal year 2019 to support PANCAP’s coordination function and the PEPFAR-USAID funded Knowledge for Health Project also received an extension to 2019. UNAIDS committed financial resources to support the documentation function of PANCAP.

The Caribbean Med Labs Foundation (CMLF) celebrated its 10th Anniversary in August and has recommitted to providing the leadership required for laboratory strengthening in the region.

CRN+ convened its Biannual General Meeting and elected a new Board of Directors to provide the oversight for its work. The Regional Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Technical Working Group broadened its mandate beyond HIV to include the M&E for the Caribbean Cooperation in Health IV. Under the CARICOM-PANCAP Global Fund Grant, PANCAP continued sensitization of the CARICOM Secretariat on the linkages between HIV, human rights and social development programmes and identified opportunities for collaboration during the annual work programme planning at the Secretariat. This is beginning to bear fruit as evidenced by the joint activity between the PANCAP Coordinating Unit and the Gender Unit to commemorate the Launch of the World AIDS Day 2018 theme and 16 Days of Activism to end Gender-based Violence.

In 2019 the Partnership will develop a new Caribbean Regional Strategic Framework for HIV and AIDS that is informed by the CRSF 2014-2018 evaluation, implement the PANCAP Resource Mobilisation Plan, and leverage the comparative advantage of development partners for transition and sustainability of both national and regional responses.

I take this opportunity to thank the staff of the PANCAP Coordinating Unit for their stellar performance and unwavering support for the work of the Partnership.

I wish the Partnership a Blessed and Peaceful Christmas.