A senior Government minister on Friday admitted that the administration has not been doing enough to stem the spread of the deadly HIV/AIDS virus in Jamaica, but argued that the state has achieved some success in formulating an anti-AIDS strategy.

“We have not done the best job of making it multi-sectoral so all ministries could simultaneously work on the problem, as they say, singing from the same hymn book,” Paul Robertson, the development minister, told the closing ceremony of a five-day United Nations Development Programme HIV/AIDS conference at the Renaissance Jamaica Grande Hotel in Ocho Rios.

The minister said some strides have nonetheless been made, citing the preparation of a national strategic plan that includes a basic framework to fight the spread of AIDS.

Robertson listed five ministries — Local Government; Labour and Social Security; National Security; Education, Youth and Culture; and Industry and Commerce — as being the focal and strategic agencies charged with the responsibility of preparing anti-AIDS measures documents for presentation to the Cabinet.

“And while the Ministry of Development is not the lead ministry, we could be important in the approach of the matter,” Robertson said.

He also lauded the efforts of the UNDP to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS.

“This is a matter of great urgency for the Caribbean,” said Robertson, “and we realise the UNDP is doing something very important for us in Jamaica, particularly as it relates to expenditure in health and quality-of-life measures.”

He added that Jamaica has started to feel the pressure of dealing with health systems and in articulating the need for lifestyle changes.

As a long-time partner of developing country governments and civil society groups, UNDP provides advice and development services in several areas, including advocacy and policy dialogue.

UNDP’s advocacy goals include securing a greater share of national budgets for HIV/AIDS prevention, care and impact mitigation, and mobilising the private sector for work-place HIV/AIDS policies.

Ten change agents and 53 first-time participants on Friday received certificates upon completion of the workshop, which they described as successful.

“It was excellent, very good,” said Ionie Whorms of the Ionie Whorms Inner City Counselling Centre. She was one of 10 change agents who previously took part in a seminar in Trinidad and Tobago and who was given the responsibility of recruiting five persons each for the Ocho Rios workshop.

“What we’ve learnt here will empower us to go forward with different and new kinds of techniques,” Whorms said.

Eighteen year-old Jose Marti Technical High School 11th grader, Doneille Holland, one of the youngest participants in the programme, and who delivered the vote of thanks, said research she carried out among fellow workshop participants indicated that most persons benefited from improvement in their leadership skills, the key element of the workshop.

“The leadership development for results programme has been a great one for us and we really appreciate all the things that have been imparted,” Holland told the closing ceremony.

Therese Jacobs-Stewart of Teleos Leadership Institute in Philadelphia, USA, which conducted the workshop on behalf of the UNDP agreed. “Persons here have been particularly passionate and forthright in the discussions and were very willing to learn,” she said. “They are now very motivated to do an effective job and we’re very confident they will make a difference in Jamaica.”

An estimated 1.9 million persons in Jamaica and other Caribbean and Latin America countries are now living with AIDS; 210,000 of this number contracted the disease in 2002. Last year, 100,000 persons in the region died of AIDS.