“With governments facing increasing fiscal constraints, Civil Society is going to be compelled to do more with less”, is the view of the Director of the Coordinating Unit of the Pan Caribbean Partnership against HIV and AIDS (PANCAP) , Ms. Juliette Bynoe-Sutherland. Ms. Bynoe-Sutherland was delivering remarks to the opening of the CARISMA Consultative Monitoring Group (CMG) meeting on June 12, 2012, in Trinidad and Tobago.
In pointing out the benefits of partnership, the Director called on organizations to rethink approaches to balancing cost recovery, while ensuring access to the poor and vulnerable. “CARISMA has shown that people will pay for good services and commodities (even the poor) if properly priced and easy to access”, she stated.
The Director lauded the project for demonstrating the important role that civil society plays, and must continue to play in the regional HIV response, and expressed appreciation to the German Development Bank (KfW) for its investment of over 13 million Euros through the two phases of the CARISMA project.
The PANCAP CARISMA Project was established in 2005 in 13 countries in the Caribbean region. The second phase of the project which is managed by the social marketing agency Options on behalf of PANCAP, ends in December 2012.
Population Services International (PSI) is implementing the project mainly through Family Planning Agencies in Belize, Trinidad & Tobago, Suriname, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and several Eastern Caribbean Countries.
The purpose of the CMG is to update and share knowledge on the progress of the regional Social Marketing Programme, with a particular focus on the Sustainability of Social Marketing Activities/Programmes in the Caribbean.
The two-day meeting is being attended by implementing partners from across the region.
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Trinidad & Tobago News