Prof. Vinard Nantulya, the Chairman Board Uganda Aids Commission (UAC) has said a delegation from Uganda will soon visit Zimbabwe to learn innovative methods to finance the fight against the disease in the face of declining resources to fund HIV/AIDS activities in recent years.
Prof. Nantulya revealed that the team will leave Uganda in the next two or three weeks as it moves closer to setting up a national AIDS Trust Fund because dependency creates enormous risks, since external aid remains unpredictable and can fluctuate considerably from year to year.
Speaking at Kaunda Grounds in Gulu town during the International Candle Light Memorial Day last Friday, Prof. Nantulya explained that as the country moves towards bridging the gap in financing the fight against the disease in the face of resource constraint, Zimbabwe is a fine example to borrow a leave from.
Though he did not reveal the number of the delegates who will be visiting the southern African country, he said Uganda will not fold its arms and watch as those who have already been enrolled on the Anti-retroviral treatment (ART) die due to lack of funds.
He stressed that, “To make trust funds sustainable, Uganda should learn from Zimbabwe which has become successful in managing locally generated funds budgeted for the fight against HIV/AIDS instead of relying on international development partners.”
According Nantulya who was once a Chief Advisor at Global Fund, the country should not wait until when the donor withdraw their support before thinking of an AIDS trust fund.
Ms Pamela Abonyo, a resident of Gulu town who has lived with the virus for the last 12 years since 2003, says some of the HIV/AIDS patients who are already on ART treatment are still in confused over their future since Uganda heavily relies on donors’ fund in order to procure drugs.
Ms Abonyo says, “If donors suspend such support to government without any prior warning, the number of early deaths among HIV/AIDS may rise drastically.”
She noted that in order to avert such danger, government should hasten the establishment of the HIV/Aids Trust Fund to address the funding gaps as well as reduce donor reliance.
In 1999, Zimbabwe introduced the National Aids Trust Fund in a bid to reduce Zimbabwe’s reliance on external funding.
Ms Sarah Nakku, Partnership Advisor UNAID Uganda, who represented Musa Mugundu, the Country Director UNAID to Uganda during the same function says they appreciate the increased contribution by the government of Uganda to the HIV response.
However, she noted that with 600,000 people on Anti-retroviral treatment (ART), coupled with about 173,000 new infections annually, there is need for the government to lead the process of identifying more funding for the response.
UNAIDS therefore called upon the government to expedite increased and sustainable funding for HIV/AIDS through increased budget allocations for health and through the establishment of alternative of avenue for financing such as an HIV Trust Fund,
According to the latest statistics by the Uganda Aids Commission (UAC), HIV/AIDS infections rates dropped by 30% in 2014 with 15% drop in deaths.
The new figure stands at 124, 000 from 170,000 in 2011.
Meanwhile, mother to child transmission in Children was cut down from 5,000 in 2014 from 280,000 from 2011, a drop by 82% in the last four years.
Presently, about 600,000 people are on Anti-retroviral treatment but close to 90 per cent of this treatment is donor-funded Under PEPFAR and Global Fund, including the Prevention of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV, which is 100 per cent funded by the American government.
