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HEALTH: ‘Fighting AIDS Needs More Than Money’

Stefania Bianchi

BRUSSELS, Jul 7 2004 (IPS) - A new study shows a significant rise in bilateral aid to fight AIDS, but development groups point out that it will take more than money to fight the pandemic.

A new study by the development assistance committee of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD, a group of 30 industrialised nations) and the joint United Nations programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) says that bilateral aid from developed countries rose from 822 million dollars in 2000 to 1.35 billion dollars in 2002, a 64 percent increase over three years.

The ‘Analysis of aid in support of HIV/AIDS control, 2000-2002’ claims to present the first comprehensive overview of aid allocations to counter AIDS. It is published ahead of the XV international AIDS conference to be held in Bangkok next week.

In all some 2.2 billion dollars were allocated by major bilateral and multilateral donors to control and combat the pandemic in the developing world in 2002, with aid from large organisations increasing from 314 million dollars in 2000 to 460 million dollars in 2002.

The International Development Association of the World Bank was the largest multilateral donor with 237 million dollars, followed by UNAIDS (88 million dollars), the European Union (53 million dollars) and UNICEF (44 million dollars).

About 75 percent of the money went to African countries, the report says.

In 2002 Nigeria was the largest overall recipient with 91 million dollars, followed by Kenya with 61 million dollars, Uganda with 53 million dollars and Zambia with 43 million dollars.

Most of the aid was used for prevention, testing, treatment and care services, as well as social and legal assistance for people affected, says the report.

The report notes a growing trend to combine testing, counseling and treatment, and to mainstream them into broader fields such as education, rural development, agriculture and transportation.

The United States is currently the largest bilateral donor with contributions averaging 793 million dollars per year between 2000 and 2002, followed by Britain with 337 million dollars, Japan with 161 million dollars and the Netherlands with 135 million dollars.

But many development organisations say that money alone is not the answer, and in spite of the increase in donations in recent years more needs to be done on the ground.

The Senlis Council, an international drug policy think tank says too much is still being spent on law enforcement, instead of public health policies. The think tank is calling for a "realignment" of the policies and the economic model behind international drug policy.

"The spread of the virus by injecting drug users is of course a major contribution to the epidemic," Emmanuel Reinert, executive director of the Senlis Council said in a statement Wednesday. "Enormous amounts of funding are being spent on the current ‘war on drugs’ approach, based on repression and law enforcement, which is not only unsuccessful, but is hindering progress in terms of the prevention of the spread of HIV/ AIDS."

Senlis says a huge amount of taxpayers’ money is being spent on repressive, law enforcement based drug policies which are reaping no benefit when they could be used on health-based policies which actively fight HIV/AIDS.

Other non-governmental organisations (NGOs) say more needs to be done at the grassroots level.

Giampiero Alhadeff, secretary-general of the Brussels-based NGO SOLIDAR, says the "whole of society must come on board to discover solutions" and to tackle the prejudice that goes with the disease.

"More money is needed, but money is not all," he told IPS. "There is a problem of red tape and bureaucracy coming between treatment and the patient. The cost of drugs has been reduced by the actions of government and companies following pressure from NGOs."

He says cost could be further reduced, but believes the real solution lies in education. "In countries where HIV/AIDS has been slowed down, this occurred when prejudice was defeated," he said. "Sexual behaviour cross cuts social taboos, religious dogma and sheer bigotry. The dismantling of prejudice is always the first step. The second is to ensure that there are sufficient funds and the third that they are applied effectively and quickly where they can bring about best result."

While the development NGO VOICE welcomes the rise in donations, it says addressing the problem of HIV/AIDS in emergency situations is fundamental to solving the worldwide crisis.

It says that the amount of money available is "not the only issue" in the fight against AIDS, and stresses that crisis situations can lead to a greater spread of the disease. It warns that vulnerable groups, especially refugees and children, are rendered even more vulnerable to the AIDS pandemic in emergency situations.

"Many humanitarian actors, especially NGOs but also ECHO (the European Commission’s humanitarian office) and the UN’s Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) are currently working on policies and guidelines for addressing HIV/AIDS in emergency situations, taking into account the emergency context and the wider impact of the spread of HIV/ AIDS on the potential for sustainable rehabilitation of the affected population," Samantha Chaitkin, communication and advocacy officer for VOICE told IPS.

She is also concerned that the increase in the donations to the fight against HIV/AIDS will divert attention from other needy areas. "Hopefully, these growing funds will not result in less attention to other humanitarian crises, especially those out of the spotlight of political and media attention," she added. "Humanitarian funds are usually planned for addressing short-term crises, and many more people die each year from hunger alone than from AIDS and other epidemics."