The Guyana Marriott will be the venue for the relaunch of the Pan Caribbean Partnership against HIV and AIDS (PANCAP) Champions for Change initiative.
PANCAP is the mechanism that provides a structured and unified approach to the Caribbean’s response to the HIV epidemic and thus will convene the two-day event from Tuesday, which comes after and 11-year hiatus. The programme was initially launched in 2004.
The keynote speaker at the event will be the Sir Charles Michael Dennis Byron, President of the Caribbean Court of Justice.
The forum will include a wide cross section of PANCAP members, partners and stakeholders engaged in discussions around the theme ‘Champions for change IV: ending AIDS by 2030’. During the event, over 15 champions will be identified from among the participants, which include civil society organisations, National AIDS Programme Managers, faith leaders, academia, the private sector, youth, regional parliamentarians and other advocates for HIV awareness.
‘Champions for Change IV will seek to align the expected contributions of the Champions for Change with international and regional commitments for ending AIDS’ stated Director of PANCAP, Mr Dereck Springer, ‘these include the UN High Level Meeting Political Declaration (June 2016); the Caribbean Cooperation in Health IV (2016), the PANCAP Justice for All Roadmap (2015/2016) and the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.
The Director further explained that the relaunched initiative will seek to assess the impact of recommendations for overcoming barriers to ending AIDS identified by major international and collaborating agencies, including the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) and The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).
PANCAP intends to utilize the relaunched initiative to create achievable targets, goals and timelines that will guide the new champions in their advocacy and HIV awareness implementation with the overarching aim of significantly contributing to the end of AIDS by 2030.