| From: |
Gabriel ADEYEMO [ profile ] |
| Subject: |
Kenya: Protest as government grapples with HIV funding shortages
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| Sent: |
May 25th, 2011 - 12:44:27 |
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Source:* IRIN/PlusNews*
http://www.plusnews.org/Report.aspx?Reportid=92750
Hundreds of Kenyan AIDS activists held a protest on 18 May in the capital,
Nairobi to demand that the government meet its commitment to increase annual
health and HIV funding. "The Minister of Finance promised an annual
budgetary allocation increase of 10 percent to health and HIV - we demand
that this promise be kept," Davis Njuguna, an AIDS activist with the
National Empowerment of People living with HIV/AIDS in Kenya (NEPHAK), told
IRIN/PlusNews during the rally...
Demonstrators cited recent groundbreaking research showing that
antiretroviral (ARV) treatment drastically reduced HIV transmission among
discordant couples as justification for more funding for the pandemic. An
estimated 44 percent of new infections in Kenya occur among married or
cohabiting couples...
The country has put more than 400,000 people on ARVs, but another 600,000
need the drugs and have no access to them; an estimated 1.5 million Kenyans
are infected with HIV. In 2010, the national budget set aside an
unprecedented 900 million Kenya shillings - about $10.5 million - for the
purchase of ARVs, and the activists said the government's most recent
application for $340 million for HIV from the Global Fund had been
successful.
However, this will still not cover Kenya's funding gap for HIV, which is
estimated at $1.67 billion up to 2013. Civil society organizations are
calling on the government to find ways to reduce the over-reliance on donors
and ensure sustainable funding for HIV programmes.
In 2010, the National AIDS Control Council (NACC) developed a raft of
proposals for consideration by the Ministry of Finance which, if adopted,
could go some way to offset the funding gap; however, few of these have been
acted on.
--
Many Thanks
Yours' in Prevention Science
Gabriel, ADEYEMO
Regional Focal Point - West Africa
Global Youth Coalition on HIV/AID (GYCA)
+234-80-6798-7317 | gabriel (at) gyca.org
www.gyca.org | www.tigweb.org
GYCA is a youth-led global network of more than 5,500 young leaders and
adult allies working on youth and HIV/AIDS in over 173 countries world-wide.
GYCA's mission is to empower young leaders with the skills, knowledge,
resources and opportunities they need to scale up HIV/AIDS interventions
amongst their peers.
Universal Access is possible; *
*Zero new HIV infections. **Zero discrimination and ***Zero AIDS-related
deaths.***
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