On the sidelines of the United Nations High-level Meeting on AIDS, the Resources and Funding for an Effective AIDS Response group discussed how to achieve a sustainable, fully funded, equitable and effective HIV response in a challenging environment for health and development.
The experts discussed the current situation and key actions for the future, answering several questions: What will be a sustainable, fully funded, equitable and effective response to HIV? How can we secure the right level of funding in the complex resource environment we face? What steps can and should we take to improve the impact/efficiency of the available resources? Are there opportunities that need to be better seized within the HIV response, with the broader health agenda and the broader development agenda? How can we ensure that we are investing in the right interventions for the right populations and places to achieve the new global goals and the collective goal of Sustainable Development Goal 3?
“In the face of this diversity of challenges, we must remain clear and focused on what needs to be done to address the issue we are meeting here today,” Kenneth Ofori-Atta, Ghana’s finance minister said. “Political leadership, community response and global solidarity must mobilize and effectively use US $ 29 billion annually by 2025 to accelerate progress towards the goals.”
Key actions identified by the panellists to guide future efforts include the following:
- More targeted interventions for equity and impact based on diverse and local needs and goals.
- Approaches and measures to ensure the necessary mix of funding, including sustained international support and adequate and sustainable domestic funding, and to improve equity and efficiency in the use of these resources.
- Better integration of HIV into other efforts for health and development, including universal health service coverage, health system strengthening, pandemic preparedness and response, and support tools such as education and social protection, and better communication and use of these efforts for maximum impact on people at risk of infection or affected by HIV.
- The importance of ensuring that critical cross-cutting factors such as gender sensitivity, bridging inequalities, data use and prevention are properly supported and addressed everywhere.
- The need for shared responsibility, which requires countries that can pay for their own actions to do so to the full extent, and for countries, which are not able to pay, to receive support from donors within the global solidarity framework.
“We need to increase our investment in effective prevention and prioritize targeted screening, especially for key populations and vulnerable groups,”said Véronique Kilumba, Vice Minister of Health of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
In turn, Peter Sands, Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, emphasized the importance of tackling barriers to end the problem: “We all know that this epidemic is fueled by inequality, discrimination, human rights barriers, gender barriers.” he declared. “And we must overcome these obstacles with money and political leadership.”
The group also explored how investing in the HIV response can help reduce vulnerability and social inequality and how to stimulate more effective social spending using a rights-based and people-centered model that empowers individuals and communities. Finally, the panel discussion took place within the broader development and fiscal context, examining the economics of HIV and how to tackle inequalities and use a people-centered HIV response to help us achieve Sustainable Development Goal 3. The cost of inaction and complacency not only for the HIV response, but also for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. Considering fiscal realities, panellists provided a broader analysis of the current situation and presented their thoughts on how to further protect and expand much-needed fiscal, budgetary and policy space through measures such as addressing public debt, tax inequities and illegal financial flows.