Finance, health experts gather in Haiti for 3rd LAC forum on fighting HIV

The Third Latin American and Caribbean Forum on Sustainability of the HIV Response, “Road to Ending AIDS in LAC: Towards Sustainable Regional Fast Track Targets”, will be held in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, from 6 to 8 November, 2017.
The Caribbean will be represented by National AIDS programme managers, chief medical officers, key populations and regional partners.
Regional partners will include University of the West Indies, Caribbean Med Labs Foundation (CMLF) and the Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition (CVC).  Civil Society Organisations will also be participating, including the Caribbean Sex Work Coalition (CSWC), Caribbean Forum for Liberation and Acceptance of Genders and Sexualities (CariFLAGS), Caribbean Regional Network of People Living with HIV and AIDS (CRN+), Eastern Caribbean Alliance for Diversity and Equality (ECADE),  The DMARCO Foundation and the Trinidad and Tobago Transgender Coalition.
According to a statement from the CARICOM Secretariat, key populations expected to attend include People Living with HIV (PLHIV) and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) representatives.
Through the ‘Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS: ‘On the Fast-Track to Accelerating the Fight against HIV and to Ending the AIDS Epidemic by 2030’, the world has pledged within the Sustainable Development Goals to end the AIDS epidemic as a public health threat by 2030. Countries have committed to a “Fast-Track” approach from now until 2020, and reaffirm, in light of the Addis Ababa Action Agenda, concrete policies and actions to close the global HIV and AIDS resource gap, and to fully fund the HIV and AIDS response with the target of ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030.
Following the successful experiences of the first and second Latin American and Caribbean Forums, the key objective of this third Forum is to develop and implement the rapid expansion of an efficient, effective, integrated and sustainable HIV response aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals and the Latin America and the Caribbean regional Fast Track Agenda.
The Forum, which will gather finance and HIV experts from Latin America, the Caribbean, and from around the world, will provide a space for sharing information on national progress and preliminary results towards the achievement of the agreed “90-90-90”, and the prevention and zero discrimination targets, challenges and unmet needs from the 2015 Rio Call to Action.
It will also provide a space for sharing new scientific data to support the implementation of cost effective and efficient interventions across the continuum of HIV prevention, care and treatment. Finally, it will facilitate a discussion around strategies and mechanisms to transition into nationally sustainable responses to end AIDS as a public health threat in Latin America and the Caribbean by 2030.
This forum is organised as a collaborative effort by the Government of Haiti, in coordination with the Horizontal Technical Cooperation Group (GCTH); the Pan Caribbean Partnership Against HIV and AIDS (PANCAP); the Minister of Health of Brazil; the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS); the Pan American Health Organization; the Global Fund Against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; the President’s Emergency Plan For AIDS Relief (PEPFAR); AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF); the Latin American Network of People Living with HIV (REDLA+), and the Caribbean Network of People Living with HIV and AIDS (CRN+).