The HIV/AIDS Project Unit (HAPU) of the OECS Secretariat will host a Peachtree Premium Accounting Non-Profit 2008 Workshop, March 17th- 19th at Palm Haven Hotel in St Lucia. The workshop, to be conducted by a certified trainer through Gama Investment Inc., has been designed to introduce Peachtree Premium Accounting software to the financial focal points who manage the reporting of the use of funds from the Global Fund agency. Training will be opened to 20 participants from Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, and St Vincent and the Grenadines. The participants are primarily staff accountants of the ministries of health of the OECS countries. 

HAPU's adoption of the new software programme and hosting of the training workshop are in response to the Global Fund's request for increased transparency. The Peachtree accounting software will allow for distinct administration of the Global Fund grant from the respective government treasuries of the OECS member countries. 

Peachtree is recognised as one of the more user-friendly accounting software applications for small operations, and is also respected for its audit trail and added accounting features. It is anticipated that the implementation of the Peachtree programme will help manage account reporting with cleaner, more complete and more accurate reports. The standardised features of the software will also mean that all islands will be subject to an objective evaluation of performance. 

Additional advantages include a facility for tying-in the use of funds with targets, allowing analysts to identify how much of the budget has contributed to ensuring persons living with HIV/AIDS are on Anti-retro-viral drugs or ARVs. The proceeds of the Global Fund grant are being applied to the scaling up of prevention, care and treatment to combat the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the OECS sub-region. 

The Peachtree workshop is one of the steps of a three-tiered effort to enhance financial management capacity of the ministries of health in each of the participating islands. The other efforts include the design, effected by HAPU finance department; and procurement and installation of software and required hardware with the help of the Information Technology department of the OECS Secretariat.