HIV/AIDS funding gap could hit 50% by 2007: U.N. agency

Asian Economic News, July 19, 2004

BANGKOK, July 12 Kyodo

Despite a sharp increase in global funding in fighting against HIV/AIDS in the recent years, global funding would still face a 50 percent shortfall by 2007, a U.N. agency predicted Monday.

For an adequate response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, UNAIDS said in the report ''Financing the Expanded Response to AIDS,'' an estimated $12 billion in global funding will be needed annually by 2005 and $20 billion by 2007.

But the agency projects the availability of only $8 billion for 2005 and $10 billion for 2007, based on funding trends over the past three years and future funding commitments.

''The gap will go from 25 percent (this year) to 50 percent (in 2007),'' Paul De Lay, UNAIDS's director of evaluation, told reporters at the weeklong 15th International AIDS Conference, which began Sunday in Bangkok.

''Probably the most challenging area is how much major donors say they're going to spend in the future,'' he said.

The report noted that most of the funding will still need to come from external donors rather than domestic spending, noting that worst-affected countries of Asia and sub-Saharan Africa rely on funds from international donors to meet most of their needs.

Of the $20 billion needed in 2007, $8.6 billion will be needed in sub-Saharan Africa, $5.6 billion in Asia and $3.4 in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the rest elsewhere.

Included in the $20 billion estimate is $10 billion for prevention services, $7 billion for care and treatment, $2 billion for orphan support, and $1 billion for policy, advocacy and administration.

Despite this year's $6 billion in global funding, most people in poor and middle-income countries still do not have access to AIDS prevention and care services.

According to a report on coverage on HIV/AIDS service in 2003 by the Joint U.N. Program on HIV/AIDS, only 3 percent of all pregnant women in 73 affected countries received drugs to prevent HIV transmission to their babies.

In addition, only 3.6 percent of injecting drug users had access to harm-reduction services while only some 6.9 billion condoms were used worldwide compared with the estimated 12 billion condoms needed for effective HIV prevention, the report said.

AIDS education in primary schools only reached 10 percent of Asian students last year compared with 60 percent in Africa, Eastern Europe and Latin America, according to John Stover, vice president of research organization Future Group International.

''The services that are available are usually located in capital cities...not in the rural areas,'' Stover told the same press conference.