2007 PIJAAG summit on HIV: Putting the pieces together
Pohnpei, FSM, 18 April 2007 – The Pacific Island Jurisdictions
AIDS Action Group (PIJAAG) ended its three-day summit on
HIV last week with a groundbreaking meeting between United
States and international Pacific-based agencies working in
HIV and AIDS and their country counterparts.
The theme of the conference, ‘Pacific in action: Putting
the pieces together’, called on participants to strengthen
their response to HIV by sharing different perspectives and
strategies on HIV prevention, counseling, testing, care and
treatment.
‘Seeing all the donors and partner agencies focusing on collaboration
and discussing how they could coordinate their work was like a dream come true
for us at a country level,’ said PIJAAG co-chair Hana Ngiruchelbad, of
Palau’s Health Ministry.
The meeting was a key opportunity to increase collaboration
between donors and partners and bridge the north–south
divide that exists in the Pacific HIV arena.
‘We would like to learn more about what is already being done in the
north to address HIV and build on that so we can then provide more appropriate
technical support,’ said Dr Dennie Iniakwala, head of the HIV & STI
Section at the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC). ‘We need to
engage stakeholders in a process of partnerships to address HIV, because each
sub-region in the Pacific has different needs.’
Initial discussions focused on regional initiatives, with
particular emphasis on increasing the support of agencies
such as the Centers for Disease Control for the Pacific Regional
Strategy on HIV.
People living with HIV played a pivotal role throughout
the summit. Sessions were strongly led by country participants
and provided an ideal setting in which to share the experiences
and challenges of implementing HIV programs in their Pacific
Island countries and territories.
PIJAAG is comprised of the six Pacific US-affiliated countries
and territories: Palau, Guam, Commonwealth of the Northern
Mariana Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Republic
of the Marshall Islands and American Samoa.
Participants involved in the summit came from the US Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention, the US Office of Minority
Health, the Asian and Pacific Islander American Health Forum,
the Asian Pacific Islander Wellness Center, Hawaii’s
Life Foundation, the AIDS Education Training Centre, PIJAAG,
the AusAID-funded Pacific Regional HIV/AIDS Project, UNFPA,
the Pacific Islands AIDS Foundation and SPC. |
