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• Zambia

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A Cabinet Committee of Ministers on HIV and AIDS has made a declaration of commitment to increase internal funding to HIV and AIDS programmes in Zambia.

In a communiqué issued in Lusaka recently, the Cabinet Committee of Zambian Ministers on HIV and AIDS stressed that the Zambian Government has realized the need for home grown solutions to the threat of the epidemic on the productive lives of its citizenry. This includes internal finances to support national AIDS programmes in order to increase the sustainability of interventions which are currently dominated by external doctors.

Among the commitments suggested include the need to scale up prevention measures, further interrogation of research findings, financing the response, and implementation of the Decentralisation Policy.

In the first commitment the Ministers noted that whilst appreciating the policy for universal access to antiretroviral treatment (ART), the cost of providing free antiretroviral drugs to those in need has become costly due to the global economic meltdown which has affected contributions coming from cooperating partners.

“Therefore the Cabinet Committee of Ministers on HIV and AIDS commit themselves to scaling up on prevention measures which are less costly and which would contribute greatly to the response, such as scaling up male circumcision and reducing multiple and concurrent sexual partnerships.”

While considerable effort has been made in research on the response, there is need for further interrogation of research on the relationship between poverty and HIV and AIDS.

It was also agreed that the current situation of relying heavily on donor funding is unsustainable. In the light of this, the Ministers agreed to work on ways to broaden the funding base, including greater funding from government coffers, as well as looking at creative ways to develop a sustainable funding mechanism.

The Cabinet Ministers also agreed on the need to rapidly implement the Decentralisation Policy as a means to rapidly scale up the multi-sectoral response to HIV and AIDS. They said they felt compelled to fully engage themselves and their Ministries to address the current needs in the national response to HIV and AIDS.