Benson Kathuri
26 December 2004
Nairobi — An estimated Sh4.7 billion has been spent this year to fund the war against HIV/Aids.
Sources say more money is now going towards the HIV/Aids related programmes than towards the agricultural sector.
The donor community has provided the bulk of money that has been distributed to more than 3,000 community and faith-based organisations. "The donor funding increased from Sh1.37 billion in 2000/01 to Sh3.46 billion in 2002/03," says a local research body.
The Institute for Policy Analysis and Research (IPAR) said in a report that the World Bank and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) leads the group of lenders.
In 2002, USAID allocated a whooping Sh1.3 billion to HIV/Aids activities compared to Sh800 million the previous year.
The US, a lead campaigner to fight the scourge, is expected to scale the amount upwards to reach Sh2 billion.
"In the financial year 2004/05, USAid will allocate approximately Sh2 billion under the Presidential Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief," says IPAR.
However, the research body says the money was unequally distributed with the most affected regions receiving less funding.
The researchers at the Nairobi-based research body wondered why Nairobi received more money than Nyanza Province that is the worst affected by the scourge.
Nyanza with the highest prevalence rate, accounting for 14.6 per cent of the total money disbursed, while Nairobi received 26.8 per cent.
"The disparity in HIV/Aids resource allocation may be attributed to lack of capacity in some provinces to initiate proposals for funding by NACC." it says.
The study by IPAR reveals that co-ordination and management of HIV/Aids activities suffered conflicting roles of key actors.
It points out that the National Aids Control Council that is charged with the responsibility of mobilising resources and the ministry of Health were marginalising other players.
"There were also concerns that the establishment of many organs below NACC tended to delay decision-making, brewed duplication as well as conflict of interest," the study says.
However, some community-based organisations (CBOs) did not have the capacity to spend and account for the money allocated by NACC.
Between April 2002 and May 2003, Sh43.3 million was disbursed to various CBOs, but only Sh18.3 million was spent.
Further, out of Sh72 million approved for disbursement by NACC, only Sh42.3 was disbursed by the end of last year.
As the pandemic nears maturing stage where the affected people start succumbing to the disease, treatment and care will make the largest expenditure.
The treatment and care for the affected and infected, the study says, will consume 56.7 per cent of the funds allocated for HIV/Aids by 2005/06 financial year.
"The government funding accounts for 45 per cent of the total funds targeted to treatment and care," says the study.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2004 The East African Standard. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
