Dr. the Hon. Jerome Walcott, Minister of Health, Barbados and Chair of the Regional Coordinating Mechanism of PANCAP
Dr. Edward Greene, Assistant Secretary-General, Directorate of Human and Social Development, CARICOM Secretariat
Mr. Carl Browne, Director, PANCAP
Ms. Altoscha Anderson, CARICOM Youth Ambassador
Members of the Regional Coordinating Mechanism, PANCAP
Officials of the CARICOM Secretariat and the PANCAP Coordinating Mechanism
Officials of the Ministry of Health and National AIDS Programme of St. Vincent and The Grenadines
Members of the Media
Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen

On behalf of the Government and people of St. Vincent and The Grenadines, and on my own behalf, I bid you warmest welcome to our shores on this the occasion of the convening of the 9th Meeting of the Regional Coordinating Mechanism of the Pan-Caribbean Partnership against HIV and AIDS (PANCAP).

I believe that I am correct in saying that this is the first time in the six-year existence of PANCAP that one of its meetings is being convened in St. Vincent and The Grenadines, and I cannot help but ponder what took you so long. Modestly, I have concluded that you were no doubt saving the best for the last. As our Prime Minister would say “you have entered the anteroom to heaven, do enjoy it”.

Let me begin by confirming to you the unequivocal commitment of the Government of St. Vincent and The Grenadines to PANCAP and to its ideal of regionalism in the fight against HIV and AIDS. We subscribe fully to the principles regional leadership in the areas of coordination, articulation of regional public policies and the implementation of HIV and AIDS programmes with a focus on regional goods, that lie at the heart of the Caribbean Partnership Commitment and which provides the frame of reference for the work of PANCAP.

We have been pleased to note the progress made by PANCAP in carving a niche for itself in the regional and international dynamic against HIV and AIDS during its relatively short period of existence. As someone who has been in the engine room almost from the very beginning in seeking to fashion a pathway for PANCAP, I am personally very pleased with the progress that has been made and the recognition that it has been attracted.

I still reflect on the very early days of seeking to provide a grounding for PANCAP when, with Prime Minister Dr. Denzil Douglas of St. Kitts and Nevis leading the charge and with Dr. Edward Greene of CARICOM providing the technical backstopping, we confronted five of the major drug companies in the world at the International AIDS Conference in Barcelona in 2002 and brokered an agreement to have the cost of anti-retrovirals slashed drastically.

For me, these two men have been the towering figures in the establishment of PANCAP and aptly depicts the synergy that must exist between the political and technical in forging development.

For the records, and lest we forget, when the negotiations with the drug companies started in 2002, the cost of treating one AIDS patient per year with anti-retrovirals was US$10,000. Today that cost stands at less than US$200 – a testament to the pioneering work of PANCAP.

Similarly, I had the privilege of being in the forefront of the negotiations with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria that brought it to the point where it broke with established guidelines and awarded its first-ever regional grant to PANCAP in 2004. It was unprecedented in the affairs of the Global Fund and opened the door for the OECS and CRN+ regional projects to gain approval later.

I recount these achievements only as examples of the importance of PANCAP and as justification for our continued support.

Tomorrow, the OECS Ministers of Health will meet in Dominica and one of the items on the agenda relates to the regional response to HIV and AIDS. My message to that meeting will be clear - whatever modalities we adopt for moving forward must complement and not compete with PANCAP; must build on the foundation of regionalism in the HIV and AIDS response that has been nurtured over the past six years, and not seek to duplicate efforts.

An area of continuing debate surrounds the benefits that are being derived from PANCAP at the national level. How is the work of PANCAP being felt on the ground in the countries where it really matters? This is a fundamentally important question that PANCAP must answer if it were to remain relevant, and I place it squarely on the table today.

In time, I believe that countries will be asked to contribute towards the work of PANCAP. This is reasonable and to be expected. But countries will only do so willingly if they are convinced of the added value of PANCAP. As someone who has been with PANCAP in the trenches from the outset, I am one of the converts. But there are many other key persons wavering souls out in the vineyard who must be rid of their doubts.

It is in this context that I wish to propose three recommendations for moving PANCAP to the next level of performance and achievement of results.

The first recommendation relates to information sharing within the partnership. I am aware of the strides that PANCAP has made in this area over the past two years, and I applaud the development of its website and the production of its electronic newsletter among other things. But the reality remains that there are too many people in key decision-making positions and at other levels who still do not know what PANCAP is and what it does.

As such, PANCAP must ensure by all means necessary that all of the good things that are happening within the partnership are beamed from the mountain top of its Secretariat into every crevice of the national responses. Only in that way can PANCAP communicate its relevance.

Secondly, I would like to see a closer nexus between regional and national planning and programming. Put bluntly, I would like to see more regular and active interface between the PANCAP Coordinating Unit, the PANCAP implementing partners and the national AIDS Programme of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, for example, to facilitate planning and programming and information sharing.

Is it beyond the realm of practicability, for example, to contemplate an annual in-country meeting between the PANCAP Coordinating Unit the PANCAP implementing partners and the National AIDS programme to get to know each other and to compare notes. I see enormous benefits in such an initiative.

And finally, I think that PANCAP must assist countries in bridging the technical assistance gaps that exist and undermine effective and efficient programme implementation. It is not enough to identify the problem as study after study has done, but PANCAP has an obligation to help countries find a solution. That is one way of showing real added value to countries.

I hope that it shall not be long before PANCAP establishes a Technical Assistance Facility, with a pool of technical expertise and adequate financial resources, that would allow countries to tap into for support as required.

Mr. Chairman, it would ungrateful of me if I did not avail myself of this opportunity to thank PANCAP for the very tangible support that it has provided to St. Vincent and the Grenadines over the years.

Perhaps the most signal contribution has been in the area of capacity building. Our current Director of the National AIDS Programme has benefited from post-graduate training in epidemiology in the United States, our Chief Nursing Officer, Senior Nursing Officer (Community Health) and Health Economist received Master’s Degree level training at the University of the West Indies, and a staff member of the Ministry has just returned for the University of London having completed a Master’s Degree in Health Planning and Health Financing – all with support from PANCAP.

At another level, we are indebted to PANCAP including St. Vincent and The Grenadines as one of the countries covered by the regional campaign on HIV and AIDS related stigma and discrimination that was promoted under the theme “I will turn around if you let met”.

And we look forward to the gift of the Mobile Blood Unit that has been promised to us. We are holding PANCAP to that commitment.