· Africa’s on-going battle against HIV/Aids is bound to take a hit with UK’s slashing of funding to UNAids by 83%.
· The decision by Boris Johnson’s government to cut UK contribution to the agency to £2.5-million in 2021 from £15-million in 2020 has been strongly denounced by UK charities and NGOs.
Africa’s on-going battle against HIV/Aids is bound to take a hit with UK’s slashing of funding to UNAids by 83%. In many African countries including South Africa, the HIV burden continues to be high and NGOs are already cash strapped. The decision by Boris Johnson’s government to cut UK contribution to the agency to £2.5-million in 2021 from £15-million in 2020 has been strongly denounced by UK charities and NGOs.
Set up in 1996, the mandate of UNAids is to end Aids as a public health threat by 2030, as part of the Sustainable Development Goals. UNAids’ new strategy 2021-2026 of “ending inequalities to end Aids” is committed to get every country and every community on track to end Aids as a public health threat by 2030. The success of the strategy however depends on funding support and efficient implementation. As richer nations pull out from funding, the capacity of poorer countries to arrest the spread of HIV/Aids suffers a setback. The UK funding cut will affect the new five-year strategy of UNAids which means the vulnerable population of Africa, girls and young women stand to lose the most.
Local NGOs working to combat HIV/Aids were already facing a resource crunch due to lower international donations and resource support over the past few years. The Trump administration slashed the overseas spending by the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief in 2019 by $1.35-billion. Another blow for NGOs came in 2020 when resources and funding shifted to fighting Covid-19.
South Africa with an estimated 20% of the population with HIV remains the world epicenter of the HIV pandemic. Almost two million need to be reached and supported to start antiretroviral treatment.
