Ayanna Webster-Roy, Tobago East MP and minister in the Office of the Prime Minister – child and gender affairs, has renewed her calls for a collaborative approach in the fight against HIV/Aids.
Webster-Roy was addressing stakeholders who gathered virtually as the National Aids Coordinating Committee (NACC) and the THA Division of Health, Wellness and Social Protection hosted a consultation aimed at getting inputs in developing the new National Strategic Plan (NSP) for HIV/Aids 2023-2028.
She said the national response to HIV/Aids is a collaborative inter-agency multi-sectoral response that is funded and supported through various mechanisms as the country aspires to achieve the end of Aids infections by 2030.
“It is clear that we must close the gaps and improve the service delivery in the national response in crafting the new NSP which takes into account the needs of our response stakeholders, clients and affected communities. We must be guided by our past experiences, our learnings, our current achievements to adopt our programmes to shift in the environment.”
She said ending Aids by 2030 is the goal but to achieve such, there must be one shared vision, one national policy and one NSP to guide the implementation of policy measures that is expected to facilitate efficiency, sustainability, better allocation and management of resources and effective communication.
“Our performance results as of last year suggest that 95 per cent of persons who have HIV knows their status, 63 per cent of persons who know their status are on medication and 93 per cent of persons on antiretrovirals are virally suppressed. This may be viewed by many that we have achieved a level of success but let me remind you – the stigma and discrimination still persist, and this must be addressed in order to improve the quality of life faced by those who are infected and affected by the disease.”
She said the consultation is expected to chart the way forward and that must critically explore ways to decrease the inequality that affects the citizenry and comprehensively tackle challenges that impede the goals of obtaining the 95/95/ 95 targets.
NACC director Maria Cruickshank-Gibbs said the development of the NSP has always been a very collaborative, high participation initiative that ensured that the multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder mechanisms for implementing the agreed upon actions or response revolves around a shared vision.
“It’s a five-year plan that we’re looking at from 2023 to 2028 – bear in mind that there are significant milestones, significant targets that we hope to meet with respect to HIV and Aids through to 2030 and the environment is extremely dynamic.”
She said the data collected over the past few months will be converted into a draft which becomes a “trigger for us to look at that data, and say did we represent the issues specifically that we need to highlight or bring close attention to.”
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