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| By Latoya GilesKey stakeholders got a firsthand glimpse into the findings of the Fourth Draft on the Country Progress Report on HIV. The report was presented by Dr. Shanti Singh,Wholesale Jerseys Online, Programme Director for the National AIDS Programme Secretariat (NAPS), at a workshop held at the Grand Coastal Hotel on Thursday.Director of NAPS Dr. Shanti SinghAt the workshop they looked at the findings combined in the final draft report. The workshop was an opportunity to secure feedback from a wider stakeholder forum to move the report to a final stage.Dr. Singh explained that the findings were done in a “two fold purpose”. First, she said, they were disseminating the findings of the end of term evaluation that was conducted.She explained that it was conducted in the second quarter of 2011 where there was an internal review.Singh told Kaieteur News that a national steering committee was established to oversee the development of the new national strategic plan and the findings of the evaluation was shared with that oversight committee.It was explained that the oversight committee then made recommendations to have further consultation with some key sections of the population. There were some focus group meetings with persons who have HIV, men who have sex with men and commercial sex workers.Singh noted that interviews were also conducted with some technical partners, donors, persons living with HIV/AIDS, civil society. She said that they were presented with a questionnaire to complete.The questionnaire was to examine whether they felt that the Secretariat achieved what it set out to do within the five years, the gaps they believe still existed and what would be priorities in moving forward in the new national strategic plan.Singh said that to date 123 persons have made an input in this end of term review.The director said that she was very pleased with what they found. She said that there are many areas where they have over achieved and they have ventured into new areas that were not identified within the National Strategic Plan.Singh said that they would continue to pay attention to stigma and discrimination “as we forward into the new National Strategic Plan. In this new plan we have to rethink how we would look at prevention, which would be one of the key elements.“Rethinking prevention and fully understanding who are the most at risk populations in our country, how do we get to understand the population of men who have sex with men in terms of the size of the population we are dealing with? What are the behavioural issues of these persons that put them at greater risk?”Female commercial sex workers and one of the important groups that we didn’t focus on in the previous strategic plan are the clients of these workers.The UN Secretary-General charged the UNAIDS Secretariat with the responsibility for developing the reporting process, accepting reports from member States on his behalf and preparing a regular report for the General Assembly. Member States are required to submit Country Progress reports to the UNAIDS Secretariat every two years.Singh had told Kaieteur News that they received a notification last year from the UN saying that they needed to have the report ready by March 2012. She said they embarked on a country team which helped put the report together. It was explained that the report has two sections; one deals with the actual response and the second gauges people’s response.Further she stated that there were seven targets that were set by the high level UN meeting which have to be reached by 2015.As it is right now, Dr. Singh explained, they are reporting on six of the targets. The seventh target deals with injecting drug use. However, she said that has not been a real issue for the programme, so they have not gathered information in that regard. |
