PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad – A senior official of the Caribbean Regional Network of People Living with HIV & AIDS (CRN+), Tuesday urged closer collaboration among regional and international stakeholders “to overcome the challenges that face us as a region, as it relates to HIV and AIDS”.
Diana Weekes, addressing regional forum (CMC Photo)Addressing the three-day forum aimed at maximizing learning, coordination and synergies among recipients of Global Fund Multi-Country Grants, Diana Weekes, a member of the board of directors of CRN+, said since its inception, her organization has worked arduously to fulfil its mission of ensuring the needs and concerns of those living with HIV across the Caribbean have a ‘voice’ at all levels of the response.
“Keeping the theme of this forum in mind, “Sustaining the Gains through Regional Collaboration and Ensuring Global Fund investments have a lasting impact in the LAC region”, CRN+ believes it is vital for us to continue working closely with our key stakeholders, especially civil society organizations, to pool human, material and financial resources together, and to make use of our comparative advantages to overcome the challenges that face us as a region, as it relates to HIV and AIDS.
“We have come a long way and are fortunate to have achieved great progress toward eliminating HIV and AIDS. This disease is no longer seen as a death sentence; however, despite our gains in controlling the epidemic, there are still challenges to overcome,” she told the event that is being facilitated by the Guyana-based 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.
The Joint Regional Dialogue among Key Stakeholders and Partners” of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) is a result of a collaboration with the Global Fund, the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) platform and the consortium of Sub-Recipients consisting of the Pan Caribbean Partnership against HIV and AIDS (PANCAP), the Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition (CVC) and the Centro de Orientación e Investigación Nacional (COIN) of the multi-country grant.
Weekes said recognition of the importance of civil society in the fight against the virus has risen on all agendas in recent years.
“Increasingly, civil society organizations are integral to policy negotiations at the national, regional and international levels. In aid effectiveness fora, the involvement of civil society has gained momentum. “The issue of civil society on the one hand and sustainability on the other has also risen in priority. International support to civil society, especially in the Caribbean, has been considerable over the years, but in recent years there has been a significant decrease in funding, especially for HIV.”
She told the forum that civil society communities contribute to the AIDS response in many different ways, adding “our leadership and advocacy ensure that the response remains relevant and grounded, keeping people at the center and leaving no one behind”.
She said communities include peer educators, networks of people living with or affected by HIV, such as but not limited to gay men and other men who have sex with men, people who inject drugs, sex workers, women, young people, counsellors, community health workers, door-to-door service providers, civil society organizations and grass-roots activists.
But she acknowledged that the role of communities is even more critical when reduced funding and a shrinking civil society space are jeopardizing the sustainability of services and advocacy efforts. “CRN+ renews the call for the Greater Involvement of People Living with HIV (GIPA). The engagement of people living with HIV is most urgent as countries continue to scale up their national AIDS responses to achieve the goal of universal access to prevention, treatment, care and support services.
“Experiences continue to show that success is more likely when communities are proactively involved in ensuring their own well-being. The decisive advocacy role played by communities is needed more than ever to ensure that AIDS remains on the agenda that human rights are respected and that decision-makers and implementers are held accountable.”
Weekes said that the GFATM continues to play its part in funding and supporting the work of the regional agencies and that the first phase (2019-2022) of the Global Fund multi-country community projects, which focused on the sustainability of services for Key Populations in the Caribbean, comes to a close at the end of this month, and a second implementation period will begin in October 2022.
“Global Fund reaffirmed its commitment to strengthening the voices of communities and civil society in processes, investing in a third phase of the Community Engagement Strategic Initiative. The primary objective of this is strengthened engagement of civil society and communities in Global Fund and related national processes. Are we truly taking advantage of the opportunities to be fully engaged as communities?”
