Round three funding of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) HIV Fund will support 13 critical projects across all SADC Member States to help end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.
This was revealed by Southern and Eastern Africa Trade Information and Negotiations Institute (SEATINI) Coordinator, Rangairai Machemedze in an update on the SADC Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP 2020-2030) implementation progress, during the 4th Regional Dialogue for Non-State Actors on the SADC (RISDP) dialogue in Harare, Zimbabwe recently. Machemedze revealed that statistics shows that there are chronic challenges of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria and that HIV incidence among adolescent girls and young women is still extraordinarily high in parts of eastern and southern Africa and western and central Africa.
“The youth remain the most affected with HIV with 4 000 new infections each week.”
The SADC Region’s 16 member states are home to 354 million people as at 2019 and the number is expected to increase to 618 million by 2043.
The 2024 UNAIDS report indicates that whilst the end of AIDS is within grasp this decade, gender inequality is exacerbating the risks faced by girls and women and driving the pandemic.
Between 2010 and 2022, AIDS-related deaths declined by 65 percent, and new HIV infections decreased by 57 percent, a marked progress in reducing HIV/AIDS prevalence, with cases dropping from 868 000 in 2010 to 413 600 in 2022.
Only Botswana, Eswatini, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe have reached the 95-95-95 UNAIDS HIV testing, treatment, and viral suppression targets. He pointed out that regional expenditure on HIV increased by $35.5 million, reaching $4.54 billion. Despite this, most countries still need support.
"No country in SADC provides universal health care. Access to essential health services ranges from a score of 71 in Seychelles to 35 in Madagascar.”
All Member States are developing national strategies for HIV prevention among key populations and adolescent girls and young women (AGYW).
The SADC HIV Fund continues to aid the regional response, and SADC succeeded in establishing the SADC Regional Health Financing Hub.
However, concern was raised that despite SADC member states' commitments to the Abuja Declaration to allocate at least 15 percent of the budget to the health sector, there are still gaps in healthcare financing, worsened by low expenditure due to persistent public finance system inefficiencies.
This was revealed by Southern and Eastern Africa Trade Information and Negotiations Institute (SEATINI) Coordinator, Rangairai Machemedze in an update on the SADC Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan (RISDP 2020-2030) implementation progress, during the 4th Regional Dialogue for Non-State Actors on the SADC (RISDP) dialogue in Harare, Zimbabwe recently. Machemedze revealed that statistics shows that there are chronic challenges of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria and that HIV incidence among adolescent girls and young women is still extraordinarily high in parts of eastern and southern Africa and western and central Africa.
“The youth remain the most affected with HIV with 4 000 new infections each week.”
The SADC Region’s 16 member states are home to 354 million people as at 2019 and the number is expected to increase to 618 million by 2043.
The 2024 UNAIDS report indicates that whilst the end of AIDS is within grasp this decade, gender inequality is exacerbating the risks faced by girls and women and driving the pandemic.
Between 2010 and 2022, AIDS-related deaths declined by 65 percent, and new HIV infections decreased by 57 percent, a marked progress in reducing HIV/AIDS prevalence, with cases dropping from 868 000 in 2010 to 413 600 in 2022.
Only Botswana, Eswatini, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe have reached the 95-95-95 UNAIDS HIV testing, treatment, and viral suppression targets. He pointed out that regional expenditure on HIV increased by $35.5 million, reaching $4.54 billion. Despite this, most countries still need support.
"No country in SADC provides universal health care. Access to essential health services ranges from a score of 71 in Seychelles to 35 in Madagascar.”
All Member States are developing national strategies for HIV prevention among key populations and adolescent girls and young women (AGYW).
The SADC HIV Fund continues to aid the regional response, and SADC succeeded in establishing the SADC Regional Health Financing Hub.
However, concern was raised that despite SADC member states' commitments to the Abuja Declaration to allocate at least 15 percent of the budget to the health sector, there are still gaps in healthcare financing, worsened by low expenditure due to persistent public finance system inefficiencies.
