John Edward Greene, United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for AIDS in the Caribbean

John Edward Greene, a national of Guyana, was appointed as the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for AIDS in the Caribbean in 2012. Professor Greene has a long regional and international career in the fields of academia, social sector development, poverty alleviation, organizational development and AIDS.

With academic training across the fields of economics, the behavioral sciences, international relations and political science, and 10 books and over 50 articles, Professor Greene established tenure at the University of the West Indies. In 2000, he joined the CARICOM Secretariat as Assistant Secretary-General, Human and Social Development. Highly sensitized to the AIDS situation in the Caribbean, Professor Greene crafted the blue-print for the establishment of the Pan-Caribbean Partnership against HIV and AIDS (PANCAP) which was recognized in 2004 as an international best practice in the response to AIDS.

Among the many contributions of Professor Greene to the success of the PANCAP there was the arranging in 2002 of the signing between CARICOM/PANCAP and six large pharmaceutical companies of a landmark agreement bringing a significant reduction in the price of antiretroviral drugs for the Caribbean.

For his contribution to the region in health, HIV and human and social development, the Government of Suriname (October 2010) invested him with its second highest national honour, Grand Officer in the Order of the Yellow Star. The Caribbean Youth Ambassadors Corp bestowed on him the Life Time Youth Award for his pioneering role in the region’s youth and development agenda.