Just over a week ago, more than 2000 persons from across the English, Dutch, French and Spanish speaking Caribbean gathered in Nassau, Bahamas for the 2011 Caribbean HIV Conference. The conference is said to have been the largest scientific conference ever held in the region.

The theme for the conference was 'Strengthening Evidence To Achieve Sustainable Action'. This meant that the conference focused on identifying a viable path that can be maintained in the regional response to HIV and AIDS in the near future. The extent to which this was achieved is perhaps in question. I say this because, while there was a large number of young people --- the most I have seen at a Caribbean event, there wasn't a strong sense of representation except being in attendance. Some of us were able to present on a few panels, displayed posters of our projects and research among other things.

The Caribbean is at a crucial and challenging time in the AIDS response. Funding is depleting --- many donors are changing their focus to populations that bear a higher prevalence than the general population. Last week, the Global Fund announced the postponement of its next round of funding. Some gains have been made but there is a great risk (and probability) that these may be reversed. As UNAIDS said, 'we must courageously face up to the challenges presented by a new context and embrace wholeheartedly the opportunities to break the trajectory of the epidemic.'

Young people are an important element in breaking that trajectory. Young people are central to the success and sustainability of HIV prevention, treatment, care and support efforts. Increased funding for programmes, largely through multi and bilateral programmes, has ensured that young people in the Caribbean are more empowered with comprehensive, correct knowledge about HIV to encourage them to abandon risky behaviours and seek out HIV prevention services. Some have managed to empower and build the capacity of young people to be leaders and to fully participate in policy and decision-making.

However, despite these efforts, young people, especially key and affected populations, continue to be at high risk and vulnerability to HIV transmission. These populations include young people who are sex workers, drug users, living in state care and detention centres, men who have sex with men, mothers, living in poverty, rural areas, etc. Young people in the Caribbean are the second most affected in the world. There were an estimated 250,000 young people in the region, 15-24 years, at the end of 2009 who were living with HIV. 52 percent of which were males. HIV prevalence varied between 0.1% in Cuba, the lowest, to 2% in the Bahamas, the highest (UNAIDS Keeping Score III).

Not many young people were involved in the conference planning and organising. Earlier, one of the organisers had assured me that young people are fully integrated in the conference; but I didn't see that in Nassau last week. In fact, in my attempt to nurture youth leadership to guide the future of the HIV response in the Caribbean, I contacted two multilateral agencies to provide support for a pre-conference for youth. My efforts ended in futility until at the last moment, we discovered that UNFPA has some money to host one. The Youth Pre-Conference was well attended by over 80 persons (both adult and youth).

Caribbean young people have been marginalised in the HIV response at all levels, while our Latin American counterparts have made full use of the opportunities afforded at various levels by a number of actors. For example,
• Only 6 Caribbean youth were in attendance at the Global Youth Summit on AIDS in April 2011 (2 from Trinidad, 1 Guyana and 3 Jamaica)
• Only 2 Caribbean youth participated in the sexual and reproductive health caucus strategy meetings at the High Level Meeting on Youth in July 2011 (Jamaica and Barbados)
• Only about 4 young people were in attendance at the Regional Universal Access Consultation in March 2011 (2 from Jamaica and Trinidad respectively)
• Less than 10 young people were actively engaged at the High Level Meeting on AIDS in June 2011 
• Less than twenty young people were in registered as delegates at the Vienna AIDS Conference in 2010 which had over 20,000 people in attendance (Jamaica had the largest contingent) 

This paints the stark reality of the future of our AIDS response in the Caribbean. Who will take over? Who is equipped to take leadership? I used these examples to make a case for us, as Caribbean youth, to position ourselves in the global response. I did this with my colleague, Korey Chisholm from Guyana, who has similar concerns. We shared with them information about AIDS 2012 and a new and exciting opportunity available to let their voices be heard--- CrowdOutAIDS. Many, if not all of them were oblivious. One guy from Guyana, who is a member of UNFPA's Youth Advisory Group, said he is always online but has never seen anything about the opportunity to contrbute to develop a global youth strategy. Perhaps this is because the Caribbean was never a part of the focus initially, but it shows that we aren't networking with others in and outside the region. However, the question is: how are we as young people in the Caribbean positioning ourselves and taking advantage of the opportunities to mainstream our issues? 

I invite all young people in the Caribbean to get involved in the CrowdOutAIDS strategic planning so that we can once again be a priority. 

This blog was originally written for UNAIDS CrowdOutAIDS.