Regional AIDS forum ends with recommendations
The news item missed our deadline for Friday, but the story of how the AIDS epidemic is affecting our nation, the Caribbean, and the world is not going to go away any time soon. Patrick Jones has the roundup of decisions taken at last week’s regional forum.
Patrick Jones, Reporting
The participants worked right up to the closing moments of the meeting, fully ventilating the various ideas on the way forward in dealing with the impact of HIV/AIDS on the region’s Public Service. According to Ambassador for HIV/AIDS, Dolores Balderamos Garcia, we need to closely examine our traditional assumptions.
Dolores Balderamos Garcia, Ambassador for HIV/AIDS
“Perhaps the public sector in our region, not only in Belize are not as robust as we might think it is. If we look at our prevalence rates and the figures for the infections in our own country, you will see that we are up in the thousands. Who are those thousands? The government of Belize, as we know, is the largest employer, and this situation is reflected, I believe, throughout most of the region. One of the main thrusts of this workshop was to sensitise our people, especially the leaders within the public sector who can go back and influence governments, that now is the time to plan. Now is the time to put in place measures to make sure that we do not see a further worsening of the situation. But I would like to remind everyone that the situation is certainly not as we might think it is.”
The workshop ended with the adoption of a six-point plan of action to address the growing epidemic. These include strengthening collaboration between and among national and regional agencies, developing and implementing mitigation measures aimed at protecting existing human resources in the public sector, and engaging civil society in the effort to cope with HIV/AIDS. Director of the Governance and Institutional Development Division of the Commonwealth Secretariat, Dr. Tendai Bare, says that while this plan of action is the best that could have come from the three day workshop, implementation must be calculated to avoid discrimination and perpetuating the pain and suffering.
Dr. Tendai Bare
“People living positively with HIV/AIDS should not be discriminated from employment and indeed enjoying any entitlements that accrue to them. Emphasis is also being placed in that we encourage governments to take a holistic approach as to how existing human resources can continue to be productive. Whilst at the same time, once such data is being collected to identify the prevalence, some other supportive mechanism can also be undertaken so that we can continue to own supplies site, regardless of the various stages in terms of the infection to the affected people, men or women.”
The achievement of the goals of the Belize City Communiqué will not be easy, and no timetable has been worked out for implementation. However, Ambassador Garcia says that an important first step has been taken.
Dolores Balderamos Garcia
“One must begin by identify the situation before you move to the next steps. I think this was an important, a very, very important first step. I could not disagree more that there is nothing new in this initiative and this effort that has taken place in Belize, but has a regional component to it. Yes, the money will not fall from the sky, but we believe that by identifying the areas of concern, engaging partners, engaging governments throughout the region with the support to the Commonwealth Secretariat, we will be able to achieve action. Because there are various funding agencies and governments throughout the world that will look at strategic plans before they decide we would like to take a closer look at this and provide funding.”
Patrick Jones, for News 5.
