The Prime Minister is also scheduled to give the final address at the Plenary Session III and Closing Ceremony: Insights into the Future Response.
The conference which is being held under the theme, "Strengthening Evidence to Achieve Sustainable Action," is the third Caribbean HIV Conference in the past decade.
It is designed to build on successes of the previous events, which demonstrated that regional cooperation and collaboration are key to confronting HIV in the Caribbean.
The conference opened on November 18 with more than 2,000 individuals from across the region in attendance and will conclude on November 22.
In the second daily newsletter issued at the conference, the Prime Minister gave her comments along with the Prime Minister of The Bahamas and a representative in the Office of the Prime Minister of Trinidad & Tobago with respect to: Will the NCD (Non-Communicable Diseases) agenda take money away from HIV?
Prime Minister Hon. Sarah Wescot-Williams responded: "This conference is to have exactly that discussion. For all the countries and islands here in the Caribbean it is about using scarce resources and trying not only to get as much out of those for the HIV response but also for NCDs.
"That is why bringing programs together to effectively and efficiently utilize funding is going to be a key issue as we start discussion during the conference."
The attendees represent a wide range of interests, perspectives, and backgrounds, and share a common goal – to take part in forming a collaborative and sustainable response to the HIV epidemic in the Caribbean region.
The Prime Minister also headed a delegation in June to the United Nations (UN) Three-day Summit on HIV AIDS in New York which brought together 3,000 participants, including 30 Heads of State and Government, along with senior policy officials, representatives of international organizations, civil society and people living with HIV to discuss the future of the AIDS response.
Also attending the conference is Minister of Public Health, Social Development & Labour Hon. Cornelius De Weever, along with policy advisors from the cabinets of the Prime Minister and the Minister of Health, representatives from the local HIV/AIDS programme management team and coordinators, Non-Governmental Organizations, the private and medical sectors, as well as research and community representatives.
