Funding the Fight

'This is the type of blue skies research that should be supported. I hope the work will receive the attention it deserves, not just in the countries that it examines but globally. It needs to be available in the World Bank, the Global Fund and UNAIDS - indeed, in all the donor agencies - as well as in the countries it covers.' - Professor Alan Whitesite, Director of Health Economics and HIV/AIDS research at the University of KwaZulu-Natal

Monitoring and planning public expenditure on HIV/AIDS is vital for managing the severity of the pandemic, the in-flows of donor funds, the dramatic increase in funds available for the disease, and the critical need for more funds, particularly indigenous commitment of resources and investment at government level. This multi-country and intercontinental study examines how the governments of four African counties - Kenya, Mozambique, South Africa and Namibia; and five Latin American countries - Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico and Nicaragua - are funding the fight against HIV/AIDS. The work is unprecedented as a compendium of data and research into government budget allocations for HIV/AIDS, conducted by civil society, research and NGO organisations within each country involved; and collated and appraised for comparative purposes between countries and across continents.

The report seeks to ascertain and compare state and donor funding for HIV/AIDS. It considers the sources, funding mechanisms, priorities, and allocations of health and HIV/AIDS financing. It assesses the ability of governments and NGOs to absorb the money; and analyses funding from the viewpoint of equity, and within a human rights framework. Its overall purpose is to contribute to the effort that ensures that money flows for the disease are understood and that funding for HIV/AIDS is made to work for the people it is targeting: aiming to boast capacity building in budgeting for HIV/AIDS at civil society level.

The work was coordinated by the AIDS Budget Unit of the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (IDASA). This agency monitors governments' commitments to fighting the HIV/AIDS epidemic by analysing budgets from an HIV/AIDS perspective, provides accessible research and analysis, disseminate information, and provides training.