Funding the fight against HIV / AIDS

Abstract

The Abuja Declaration, adopted at the Africa Union special summit on AIDS in 2001, called upon African governments to allocate 15% of their national budgets to health spending, with more emphasis on HIV/AIDS programmes. This commit¬ment echoes the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on HIV I AIDS (UNGASS), which calls for an increase in spending on HIV I AIDS programmes to US$ 7-10 billion by 2005. The declaration of commitment by the Africa Union calls for minimum spending that provides coverage of essential prevention, care, and mitigation services in an effort to reduce the spread of the epidemic. In Kenya, despite the government's commitment to fight the pandemic, very little informa¬tion is available on the actual expenditures on HIVI AIDS activities. The objective ofthis study was to track HIV/AIDS expenditure and analyse the budget from an HIV/AIDS perspective. Understanding how the financial and other national re¬sources are used towards realization of the national objectives as outlined in the HIV I AIDS related strategic goals in each country, will help the planners to choose pertinent, useful and attainable interventions.