Mr. President
I am pleased to address this august Assembly on behalf of the fourteen member States of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) at the United Nations. In this regard, I speak to you in my capacity as the CARICOM Lead Head with responsibility for Human Resources, Health and HIV. More than ever, CARICOM member States recognise that confronting the challenges for fast-tracking the response to HIV and AIDS collectively and in global solidarity is our best option for ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030. Moreover, we in the Caribbean aspire to be the First Region in the World to get to Zero. And with the support of the Global Community, we certainly can. Since the last UN High-Level Meeting in June 2011, our region has made great strides.
This is demonstrated by the facts that between 2006 and 2015:
- The HIV prevalence rate has been halved from 2.2% to 1.1%
- The estimated number of people living with HIV receiving antiretroviral therapy has increased from under 5% to 44%
- Deaths from AIDS-related causes declined from approximately 20,000 to 8,800
- And our aspiration is to be the First Region in the World to end mother-to-child transmission of HIV.
These successes should not lure us into a state of complacency:
- The Caribbean, for all its successes, is still second to Sub-Sahara Africa in its prevalence rate
- The vast majority of people living with HIV are concentrated in three Caribbean countries
- In these three countries, prevalence among the key risk groups such as men who have sex with men can be as high as 32%
- And in many countries, data is increasingly revealing a spike in prevalence among women and girls. This trend, of course, needs to be stopped.
So what are the lessons learned, and how can we eliminate AIDS by 2030 in keeping with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to which all CARICOM Member States are committed?
We are fortunate for the global and regional leadership of UNAIDS. It has demonstrated what can be achieved by the coordinated policy to fast track the response to AIDS. We are fortunate too, for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, without whose investments many countries like ours in CARICOM would not survive these diseases, and we are particularly indebted to the US-led PEPFAR, among other development partners, for keeping the faith in the region as a whole as we move forward towards 2030.
Like many other regions in the world, CARICOM recognises that the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development provides new perspectives, challenges and opportunities.
Consequently, we are placing greater emphasis on:
- Building capacity to gather and analyse reliable disaggregated data in a timely basis to inform our policies
- Applying the lessons learned from the AIDS movement to strengthen our health systems and to consolidate an integrated public health response, which is so essential in this period of health emergencies of which Zika, Dengue and Ebola are among the latest manifestations, as well as to address the HIV and non-communicable diseases
- Identifying the imperative of ‘health convergence’ and universal health coverage as mechanisms for effectively coordinating approaches and monitoring progress on a range of health and development issues
- Placing emphasis on access to affordable medicines in fulfilling the right to health, thereby maintaining the momentum of activists in the early 2000s and the call by the Global Commission on HIV and the Law for using the TRIPS flexibility to achieve this end.
In this regard, it is worth mentioning that through the initiative of CARICOM Ministers of Heath with technical assistance from UNAIDS and PAHO, the Caribbean was the First Region in the World to negotiate and sign an agreement with six pharmaceutical companies in 2002 in Barcelona. This reduced the price of drugs by between 85 and 90%. It started a process in collaboration with the Clinton Foundation, leading to a dramatic increase in the number of people on HIV treatment in low and middle-income countries with very significant cost savings, estimated at USD 325 Billion to date. Yes, the Caribbean takes credit for being a catalyst in this venture and we are pleased to note that the Secretary General has appointed a high- level panel to look at the challenges of access to medicines. We look forward to the outcome of their work.
On behalf of the Caribbean Community, I join in solidarity with representatives from across the world in commending you and the distinguished co-facilitators whom you appointed for the negotiation of the bold political declaration that this meeting has adopted. These sentiments were echoed at a breakfast caucus of representatives from our region only this morning.
As we move forward, we recognise that the political declaration from this High-Level Meeting provides useful guidelines. We realise, too, that these global guidelines are most effective if we take into consideration the special cultural, political, social and economic circumstances of the regional and national communities to which they apply. Our approach includes, among other elements, an emphasis on the health of women, girls and adolescents in the “Every Caribbean Woman Every Caribbean Girl Initiative,” and the complementarity between the PANCAP and the Caribbean Public Health Agency.
CARICOM countries are making every effort to achieve the level of financial sustainability required to achieve the targets for ending AIDS. Nevertheless, we will continue to advocate against the insidious classification based on GDP only. We call for greater access to concessional funding for HIV and other development areas. We take this view because such a classification fails to include other conditions and vulnerabilities that impede small economies like our own and those of other small island developing States. In this vein, we call on the international community, in particular, development partners to safeguard access to special funding and financing for middle-income countries, in particular, those in the Caribbean, as we work to maintain the gains of our HIV response and commit to accelerate action towards ending AIDS by 2030.
In closing, on behalf of my fellow CARICOM Heads of Government, in thanking the Secretary-General for his leadership, which extends beyond this High-level meeting, we in the Caribbean pledge our support for the political declaration to be implemented, in accordance with our national circumstances and priorities. We acknowledge that it is part of a legacy to the World Order, as well as a significant commitment to promoting the health and wellbeing of all of our citizens.
May it please you. I thank you.
*************************
DISCLAIMER
This article was posted in its entirety as received by SKNVibes.com. This media house does not correct any spelling or grammatical error within press releases and commentaries. The views expressed therein are not necessarily those of SKNVibes.com, its sponsors or advertisers
