BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, NOVEMBER 6TH 2006 (CUOPM)
St. Kitts and Nevis will be represented at an upcoming meeting of the Pan Caribbean Partnership (PANCAP) Against HIV/AIDS to be held in Tortola, British Virgin Islands later this week.
Minister of Health, Hon. Rupert Herbert and his Permanent Secretary, Mr. Elvis Newton, will be among 100 officials from the Caribbean as well as Asia, Switzerland and Germany at the November 9th and 10th meeting.
Representatives will also attend from the University of the West Indies, the Red Cross, the Caribbean Council of Churches and the Red Crescent Society as well as other Non-Governmental local and regional organisations.The opening ceremony for the meeting is scheduled for the evening of November 8 at the H. Lavity Stoutt Community College Auditorium, while the working sessions will be held at the Long Bay Beach Resort.
The theme for this year’s meeting is “Defining the PANCAP Strategic Agenda: Planning for the Future.”
Participants will look analytically at the first five years of the organisation’s existence and current situation before determining the way forward for the next five years.
The sub-themes are “The First Five Years: An Analytical Review,” “The Current Situation: Checking the Scorecard” and “The Next Five Years ““ Whither PANCAP.”
PANCAP was established in 2001 at a CARICOM Heads of Government Meeting. Member countries are Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, St. Kitts and Nevis, St., Lucia, St. Vincent and The Grenadine, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
The partnership aims to scale up the response to HIV/AIDS in the region through advocating for HIV/AIDS issue at the highest levels within Governments, coordinating a regional response and mobilising resources, both human and financial, to address the epidemic.