BASSETERRE St. Kitts, November 21st 2011 (CUOPM) – The United Nations (UN) Secretary General, Ban-Ki - Moon, has appointed former CARICOM Secretariat Assistant Secretary-General, Dr. Edward Greene as UN Special Envoy for HIV in the Caribbean.
In this role Dr. Greene will be responsible for advancing the cause of HIV/AIDs in accordance with the UN mandates, and in collaboration with the Executive Director of UNAIDS and the regional and national institutions in the Caribbean.
Until recently, Assistant Secretary General for Human and Social Development at the Caribbean Community Secretariat, Dr. Greene, also, Professor Emeritus of the University of the West Indies is credited with mobilizing the political commitment that contributed to the establishment and sustainability of the Pan Caribbean Partnership against HIV/AIDS.
He chaired the PANCAP Executive Committee between 2001-2006 and played an active role on the UN Global Task Team 2005-2007 which championed the cause of universal access to HIV prevention, care and treatment
Dr. Greene was also involved in advocacy in the Councils of CARICOM and in international fora for the accelerated approach to HIV, in particular for reducing stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV.
He also fashioned programmes in health, education, labour, youth, gender, culture, the environment and sport that fell under his portfolio as assistant secretary general for human and social development at CARICOM to expand the reach of HIV in an intersectoral approach that would foster behavior change and prevention as a critical response to the disease.
As a member of UNAIDS Global Task Team 2011 he assisted in the formulation of the strategy for eliminating mother to child transmission and keeping their mothers alive. This was an essential feature of the Declaration resulting from the UN High Level Meeting on HIV in June 2012.
One of his latest endeavours is the spearheading of the establishment of the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) a consolidation of 5 regional health institutions into one agency .He sees this as a critical health sector response to HIV and a “bridge of hope” in the accelerated response to both HIV/AIDS and the NCDS.
He has published widely and is the recipient of several awards for his contribution to the fields of health and HIV/AIDS. These include the prestigious 2011 PAHO Award for Administration, The Sir Phillip Sherlock Award , jointly conferred by the University of the West Indies and the University of Technology of Jamaica, and the Special PANCAP Award 2010 , He also was conferred the Life Time Youth Award from the CARICOM Youth Ambassadors corps that he nurtured during his tenure at the Caribbean Community Secretariat and is also the recipient of national honours from his homeland, Guyana in 2011 and from Suriname in 2010.
Dr. Greene succeeds Sir George Alleyne, Chancellor of the University of the West Indies and Director Emeritus of PAHO who served in this role between 2003 and 2010.
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