Financing the response to AIDS
In the last few years global priorities have shifted away from HIV towards maternal and child health and malaria.
The new research just published by the Kaiser Foundation shows that this has meant that government funding for HIV programming has fallen for the first time in a decade. The research tracks funding levels of the donor governments that collectively provide the bulk of international assistance for AIDS through bilateral programs and contributions to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
At the same time fiscal and political pressures on overseas development aid have intensified, and donors are becoming increasingly focused on getting better value for money from their funding, focusing on investing resources in the most cost-effective ways possible.
It is in this context that the Alliance has welcomed the publication of a new investment framework for HIV/AIDS.
Excitement around the investment framework
The framework, if implemented, has the potential to prevent 12.2 million new HIV infections and prevent 7.4 million deaths due to AIDS by 2020.
It was developed by international experts from a range of agencies, including UNAIDS, the Global Fund, WHO and the US Government.
The framework demonstrates the impact of an increase in spending on HIV/AIDS leading up to 2015, followed by a decline in spending from 2015 to 2020. As the effect of current and future targeted investments reaches a tipping point, both HIV investments, and HIV rates, would decline.
For the Alliance, the framework is exciting because it articulates an approach to the implementation of HIV programmes that reflects evidence of what works.
Specifically it highlights four key things:
- Funding must be targeted to interventions that focus on communities most affected by HIV and AIDS
- More recognition and support for community mobilization and service delivery by communities themselves
- People must have access to ARV treatment (responding to the increasing new evidence of the significant health improvements and HIV/TB prevention potential of ART)
- Human rights-based programming (such as advocacy, stigma reduction and efforts towards supportive laws) is ‘critical’ to the model, rather than optional or additional.
In addition, the framework positions human rights-based programming
as ‘critical’ to the model, rather than optional or additional.
Read
more about the significance of the framework for Alliance linking
organisations and partners in a new discussion paper: What
is the investment framework for HIV/AIDS and what does it mean for the
Alliance?
Acting on the framework
The Alliance is beginning to use the investment framework to more directly promote effective and community driven responses to HIV in each country where the Alliance operates.
Whilst we believe there is still some critical thinking to be done in relation to the framework and the assumptions that it contains, we do believe that with this framework we can intensify and improve national planning for HIV.
We are encouraging Alliance linking organisations, and other civil society advocates, to:
- ensure the framework is on the national agenda
- identify the key populations, programmes and coverage levels in-country, and analyse the assumptions in the framework
- advocate for a more high impact, precisely targeted and costed national HIV programme.
The Alliance is keen to talk to individuals and organisations interested in the issues around value for money and strategic investment in HIV programming. Please get in touch if you are interested in working with us on these issues.
More information:
Towards an improved investment approach for an effective response to HIV/AIDS, Lancet article (June 2011)
Financing the Response to AIDS in Low- and Middle- Income Countries: International Assistance from the G8, European Commission and Other Donor Governments in 2010, Kaiser Family Foundation (August 2011)
What is the investment framework for HIV/AIDS and what does it mean for the Alliance, discussion paper (August 2011) – also available in French and Spanish (add links)
More on the Alliance’s commitment to ensuring value for money.