April 22nd, 2014 -- How will HIV prevention, treatment and care be funded in the future? That’s a looming concern for most Caribbean AIDS programmes. Economic growth has slowed throughout the region. For many, high debt levels and recurring expenses severely limit the amount of money available for HIV. And more than ever, HIV programmes are vulnerable to cuts in investments from international partners.
Last week Caribbean civil society, governments and technical partners met in Kingston, Jamaica to discuss strategies to achieve the greatest impact under the new funding model now being implemented by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The Global Fund will allocate nearly USD$600 million for Latin America and the Caribbean during the 2014-2016 period, more than the region received in the last four years. According to the Fund, the new funding model emphasises strong country ownership and an overarching focus on human rights.
Fenton Ferguson, Minister of Health of Jamaica, welcomed news that his country could apply for additional funding from the Global Fund under the new model. The Health Minister reiterated that even as his country increased national investments in HIV and moved to make its AIDS programme more efficient, the policies of international partners could have a profound impact on results, triggering “a reversal of… hard-fought gains made in the recent past”.
Ernest Massiah, Director of UNAIDS Regional Support Team for the Caribbean, said the new funding model supported the work already underway in the region to prioritise investments and programming based on evidence.
“We have to look carefully at where we can make efficiencies, where we are spending more than we should to get certain results and where we must stop doing the things we are accustomed doing because they are not having the impact we would like,” Mr Massiah said.
UNAIDS Caribbean is currently supporting countries in developing Investment Cases. The approach uses combined analysis of the economic, health and social situations to determine where HIV investments should go.
Caribbean Programme Coordinator of the Pan American Health Organisation, Ernest Pate, emphasised that countries should consider their continued eligibility to access Global Fund funding as an opportunity to bolster domestic investments and the effectiveness of programmes.
“Countries should increase national funding as an investment into the future with the adoption of the evidence-based interventions which result in further reduction of the impact of HIV,” he said.
250,000 people were living with HIV in the Caribbean in 2012. New infections decreased by 54 percent from 2001 to 2012. The epidemic is generalised, with prevalence much higher among certain key populations. In the region, HIV prevalence ranges from seven to 33 percent among men who have sex with men and between one and 24 percent among sex workers.
Jaevion Nelson, Vice Chair of the Country Coordinating Mechanism for the Global Fund in Jamaica, encouraged countries to prioritise the inclusion and empowerment of people infected with and affected by HIV.
“Let us ensure that we empower the people we serve. Let us ensure that they are not just passive receivers of the interventions we design with and for them,” Mr Nelson stressed.
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