§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for International Development, pursuant to her answer of 14 November 2001,Official Report, column 776W, if she will outline the conclusions reached at the CARICOM meeting held in St. Lucia in November regarding future HIV/AIDS prevention and mitigation programmes in (a) the Turks and Caicos, (b) the UK Virgin Islands, (c) Montserrat, (d) Anguilla and (e) US Virgin Islands of the Caribbean. [21390]
§ Clare ShortThe CARICOM meeting held in St. Lucia last month focused on the revision of the Caribbean Regional Strategic Plan for HIV/AIDS to take account of the outcome of the UN General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS and the Nassau Declaration of the CARICOM Heads of Government meeting in July this year. It also discussed the need to develop an appropriate structure to co-ordinate the implementation of the Regional Strategic Plan. DFID has offered support to the CARICOM Secretariat in both of these areas. The St. Lucia meeting did not specifically discuss country level programmes.
We are currently funding a £516,000 project with the Caribbean Regional Epidemiological Centre (CAREC) to strengthen HIV/AIDS/STD case management, support the development of behavioural, communications and information interventions for vulnerable groups, strengthen the management of national AIDS programmes and improve epidemiological surveillance in the UK Caribbean Overseas Territories. Montserrat, Anguilla, the British Virgin Island and the Turks and Caicos Islands are the primary beneficiaries of this project. The CAREC programme forms a key component of the Caribbean Regional Strategic Plan for HIV/AIDS and a £1.7 million extension of our support, taking it to 2005, is currently being developed in collaboration with CAREC.