HIV/AIDS financing: a case for improving the quality and quantity of aid |
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| Authors: | NANA K POKU |
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| Institution: | John Ferguson Professor of African Peace and Conflict Studies in the Department of Peace Studies at the University of Bradford. He was formerly Director of the United Nations Commission on HIV/AIDS and Governance in Africa. He is also the Programme designer and leading manager of the International Development Association funded Treatment Acceleration Programme within the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. His recent publications include Africa's AIDS crisis: how the poor are dying;(2006), The political economy of AIDS in Africa (with Alan Whiteside, 2004), and Global health and governance: HIV/AIDS (with Alan Whiteside, 2005). |
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| Abstract: | There is no doubt that increasing amounts of funding are needed to provide a full package of HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and mitigation interventions to Africa. However, even the existing funding flows are posing considerable challenges at a national level. In the quest for rapid results, donors have too often chosen to alleviate the lack of local capacity by bringing in foreign technical assistance or building parallel systems for delivering commodities such as drugs that may not be sustainable over the long term once external assistance stops. Even when such interventions may be relevant, they do not address the biggest challenge, namely how to build up the capacity and the systems needed for large-scale implementation of the AIDS response. This article argues that to attain the needed efficacy in HIV/AIDS mitigation programmes, further sustainable increase in external financing is certainly required (particularly for treatment programmes), but even more important is the need to implement them. |
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