ADDIS ABABA – Following the ever decreasing foreign aid inflow to control and prevent HIV and AIDS, Ethiopia is set to implement Domestic Resources Mobilization (DRM) schemes, announced the Federal HIV & AIDS Prevention and Control Office.
Office Project and Grant Management Director, Zelalem Gezachew told The Ethiopian Herald that more than 8.2 million additional people living with HIV must be put on Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) to achieve HIV treatment goals. But, looming funding gaps and the threat of drug resistance HIV may drive a second wave of the epidemic. Ethiopia may fall even further to donor funding in 2019, he added.
“Continued investment is needed.” said Zelalem adding the nation has to think to establish “Ethiopian fund” for HIV/AIDS and other related diseases.
HIV financing mechanisms or AIDS mainstreaming fund is basic to come out of the expected challenge.
“In our case, ministries and agencies workers have been contributing two percent of their salary in order to support PLHIV though it was inconsistent.
Ethiopia benefited from external sources, said Zelalem adding that “We earned 2.8 bln USD over the past 10 years alone from PEPFAR and Global Fund.”
But these
days, the foreign aid income is declining day by day and would not be a grantee
to hit the target set to achieve. Thus, before doners terminate their
assistance once and for all, the nation should think about other financial
schemes, he added.
“When the country joins lower middle-income economy by 2030, donors will certainly terminate their support. Hence, it is better to get prepared for the situation. Otherwise, the nation will not able to treat and conduct HIV testing.
Thus, the country should devise mechanisms to generate and cover all the spending from domestic funding, Zelalem said.
To sustain the gains in the HIV response and attain targets for 2020 and 2030 in the face of declining external support, it will be critical to identify and mobilize new domestic resources for HIV. To this end FHAPCO has planned to develop DRM and sustainability strategy for HIV/AIDS prevention and control program, Zelalem said.
For DRM’s applicability, the national task force led by the Office has proposed to undertake a baseline assessment of current HIV financing sources and levels, develop DRM sustainability and its strategy, develop a legal framework and implementation guidelines for relevant DRM mechanisms implement the DRM strategy, he stated.
The Ethiopian Hearld May 2/2019
BY GIRMACHEW GASHAW
