Latest update November 29th, 2024 1:00 AM
UNGASS two-day workshop concludes
By Fareeza Haniff
Participants at the UNGASS workshop
A United Nations General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) workshop, in which participants from Guyana, Bahamas and St Kitts and Nevis were trained to report on 2010 UNGASS through understanding of data requirements and development of a roadmap to meet the March 31, 2010 deadline for submission of reports, concluded yesterday.
The two-day workshop, which was held at the Grand Coastal Inn, Le Ressouvenir, East Coast Demerara, also trained the participants to analyze UNGASS indicators and data requirements for 2010 reporting, taking into consideration the quality and quantity of reports on indicators in previous instances.
During the forum, Health Minister, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy called for ‘workshops’ such as this one to be abandoned and for actual work to be done. Minister Ramsammy explained that workshops usually involve lengthy speeches and lectures, and participants leave the session without understanding what the workshop was really about.
“At these workshop things…sometimes somebody lectures, we have a few questions and we move on to the next one…but let’s sit down and work. There are things to be worked out and there is still confusion among many of the indicators,” Minister Ramsammy said.
In 2001 for the first time, the UN General Assembly organized a special session for UNGASS on HIV/AIDS to discuss the importance of the epidemic and agree on a number of global indicators to monitor its evolution.
There was a consensus on 25 indicators which became the UNGASS core indicators to be monitored and reported on, on a biannual basis, at the UNGASS meetings. In total, 189 UN member states have signed onto the declaration of commitment.
During UNGASS meetings, national governments, United Nations and Civil Society groups come together to discuss the progress accomplished in responding to the epidemic and also the challenges posed by the virus, and to propose global strategies to address these challenges.
But this time around, the reporting will coincide with the deadline set for the UN member states to achieve universal access to HIV prevention, care and treatment and to plan for the achievement of Millennium Development Goal (MDG) number 6 (stopping the spread and reversing the trend of HIV/AIDS in the world.)
According to Minister Ramsammy, many countries did not report on significant indicators, as virtually every country in the Caribbean had one or more indicators that they did not report on.
“So the goal is not to just report…the goal is to report fully. In 2010 therefore, whilst we cannot make an improvement in the fact that all of us have reported, we should have an improvement on how fully we report,” Dr. Ramsammy urged.
The Health Minister also pointed out that while Guyana now has the capacity to treat anyone who is HIV positive, a system needs to be implemented in order to find people who are HIV positive but are not accessing treatment.
This brings the Ministry back to the prevention issue where people must know their status.
While this is the challenge being faced in most countries, developing countries like Guyana continue to struggle with human resource constraints. According to Dr. Ramsammy, in many countries investments have been made in the training of health care professionals, but in the end, these professionals migrate to developed countries.
Meanwhile, the training workshop was facilitated by a representative from the UNAIDS Caribbean Regional Support Team Dr. Bilali Camara, who noted that the UN report on the status of HIV indicates that there was an increase in treatment coverage of HIV/AIDS from 30 per cent to 50 per cent between 2007 and 2008.
“We have been able as a region to move from 45 per cent in terms of coverage of PMTC to 52 per cent. In terms of taking care of children living with HIV, we have moved from 35 to 55 per cent.”
However, he noted that there is still a challenge being faced with new infections. The report indicates that this was only reduced by 4.8 per cent between 2007 and 2008.
Also present at the workshop was UN Resident Coordinator Kiari Liman – Tinguiri and Pan American Health Organisation Country Representative (PAHO), Dr. Kathleen Israel.
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