AIDS funding not reaching community efforts
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Reuters Examines Challenges of Directing International AIDS
Funding to Community-Level Efforts in Africa
http://www.kaisernetwork.org
02 Mar 2006
Reuters on Sunday examined how, although international aid for
HIV/AIDS programs in Africa has increased, money is not reaching
community-level efforts. According to aid agency officials, the
increase in HIV/AIDS spending "has created bottlenecks, with
fragile health care systems, disorganized government departments
and fledgling community groups often ill-prepared to absorb the
money flowing in," Reuters reports.
Global HIV/AIDS funding has increased from US$ 250 million in
1995 to more than US$ 8 billion in 2005, and governments and
United Nations agencies now are facing the challenge of develop-
ing new ways to spend it, according to Reuters. Fatma Mwassa --
information chief of Tanzania's HIV/AIDS control organization,
TACAIDS -- said that Tanzania is having difficulties spending
its HIV/AIDS money because of donor requirements, which often
limit how organizations can spend their funds.
Peter Piot, executive director of UNAIDS, said, "We all need to
begin thinking out of the box," adding that, "stopping the AIDS
epidemic is going to require more than just a medical approach."
Piot also said that structuring funding so that it can provide
basic needs, such as bicycles for village health workers, is a
concern. Increased HIV/AIDS funding has had an impact on Africa
primarily by increasing access to no-cost antiretroviral drugs.
However, officials say only about 10% of people on the continent
who need drugs have access to them, and services such as support
for children who have lost one or both parents to AIDS-related
causes are neglected (Quinn, Reuters, 2/26).
"Reprinted with permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org.
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