PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad--The Pan-Caribbean Partnership against HIV and AIDS PANCAP, the mechanism that provides a structured and unified approach to the Caribbean’s response to the HIV epidemic, will host a Knowledge Management Share Fair in Port-of-Spain, Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, on March 14. Participants will include over eighty National AIDS Programme (NAP) Managers and Implementing Partners such as civil society organisations that work with people living with HIV and key population groups (including youth).
The Share Fair is an initiative of the PANCAP Knowledge for Health project, which aims to enhance knowledge generation, sharing and learning among HIV programme implementers and civil society around the implementation of “Treat All” and the 90-90-90 Targets.
With its “Treat All” recommendation, the World Health Organisation (WHO) removed all limitations on eligibility for antiretroviral therapy (ART) among people living with HIV; all populations and age groups are now eligible for treatment. This was in tandem with its new policy of September 2015, which stated that anyone infected with HIV should begin antiretroviral treatment as soon after diagnosis as possible.
The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS UNAIDS 90-90-90 Targets are: by 2020, 90 per cent of all people living with HIV will know their HIV status; 90 per cent of all people with diagnosed HIV infection will receive sustained antiretroviral therapy; and 90 per cent of all people receiving antiretroviral therapy will have viral suppression.
The Share Fair will expand on the capacity-building initiatives implemented by the project. These include the Knowledge Synthesis and Best Practices Workshop (2016), South-to-South Learning Exchanges to the Dominican Republic and Jamaica (2017-2018), Treat All Message Design Workshop (2017), Collaborating and Learning towards Treat All Share Fair (2018), PANCAP webinars and other ongoing regional knowledge management efforts around 90-90-90 and Treat All.
It will provide a space for NAP managers and Civil Society Organization (CSO) representatives to showcase best practices from implementation experiences, discuss critical challenges and provide recommendations for increasing access to services for men, including men who have sex with men; and other key populations in achieving 90-90-90.
Access to services by men will be a key issue during the Share Fair as the UNAIDS Global AIDS Update 2018 shows that gay men and other men who have sex with men accounted for nearly a quarter of new infections in 2017. The report also highlighted that efforts to reach men and boys, and particularly gay men and other men who have sex with men, are constrained by health services insufficiently tailored to their needs and limited community-based services.
To build capacity in the area of improving access to health by men, the Share Fair will include a Knowledge Café, which will highlight successful Men’s Health programmes.
According to PANCAP Knowledge Coordinator Dr. Shanti Singh-Anthony, the intention is to highlight innovations from country programmes that have achieved positive results in relation to increasing access to prevention, treatment, care and support services, by men and boys. Implementers of programmes who are challenged to reach men with health services can use the innovative practices to increase men’s access to quality health services.
“Previous Share Fairs were successful in forging stronger partnerships and collaboration between NAP Managers and CSOs and sharing of best practices,” stated Dr. Singh-Anthony, adding, “We intend to build on these successes. We cannot afford to leave our men and young boys behind at this critical stage of the HIV response. The Share Fair will provide an ideal opportunity for the two groups to utilise the lessons learned from the region to enhance services for men. The overarching objective is to increase the number of men and boys who are accessing HIV prevention, treatment, care and support services.”
Participants will also share implementation experiences in relation to the provision of Pre-exposure Prophylaxis PrEP, innovations for reaching and testing key populations and strategies for sustaining the HIV response.
