Namibia has one of the highest rates of HIV and AIDS in the world and has enjoyed generous and critical donor support for its efforts to tackle the pandemic. But no longer. Suddenly, Namibia faces a frigthening future with little external funding for HIV and AIDS work.
Casper Erichsen is the Director of Positive Vibes, which is an OSISA grantee, and he does not mince his words, "The Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is due to dry up in June 2012 and the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief will follow suit in 2015 - although a drastic scale back in funding is already underway.
More than this, with most intermediaries and bilateral donors already gone, the Dutch Humanist Institutie for Cooperation (HIVOS) has announced its pull-out from Namibia in 2012 - something that has shocked us to the core.
To paraphrase Henk van Hentergem, the head of UNAIDS in Namibia, 'no other country in the world has experienced such a sudden and total donor attrition in the field of HIV so there is no template on how to respond'.
In other words, 'go ahead and panic'."
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2 Comments
Your article headlined “Funds for HIV/AIDS in Namibia running dry” which appeared on your website on 16 November contains inaccuracies about the Global Fund’s funding for HIV/AIDS in Namibia. The funding for the Global Fund HIV/AIDS grants in Namibia is committed until June 2013. The performance of these grants will be assessed in November 2012, and should the grants demonstrate good results, funding will continue for another three years. The Global Fund has signed a total of six grants with Namibia – 2 HIV/AIDS and 2 TB and 2 Malaria for a value of $216,183,556. Out of this amount, USD 152 million has been disbursed to date. Programs funded by the Global Fund have so far provided antiretroviral therapy for 86,000 people living with HIV in Namibia.
Sincerely,
Jon Lidén
Communications Director
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria
This is alarming and important news and deserves wider attention. We 've always warned about the threat to the survival of critical services and civil society voices in the event that funding for HIV and AIDS dries up. We may now be witnessing it first hand.