National AIDS Commission says HIV belongs on the budget

Martin Cuellar

Copies of the HIV strategic and operational plans were also handed over to the government this morning. And while several ministries, particular the Ministry of Health, have been supportive of initiatives by the National AIDS Commission, Martin Cuellar says they need the Ministry of Finance to come onboard. That’s because external funding is on the decline and the country’s HIV response will have to be become self-sustainable.

Martin Cuellar PhD, Executive Director, National AIDS Commission Secretariat

“The relationship with the government has been on a continuous improvement. We started many years ago when HIV was seen as just a health problem and a health issue and obviously from the onset, the Ministry of Health was a key starter in the national response to HIV in the country and they have always been one of the strongest members of the national response and they continue to do so. But we currently have at least five ministries involved in the national response; those include Human Development, Education with Youth as well, Labour and more recently, tourism. But we want to do more; we would like to include the Ministry of Finance because that’s a key ministry that has not really been mainstreamed into our response. And as we go through the next and ten years, we realize that one of our most important areas of support will be establishing sustainability because the global funds for HIV is starting to dwindle and countries are being asked to develop sustainable plans to maintain their own national responses in the future.  We look forward to the continued transition from the philosophy, from the talk to the action, to the development within the actual plans, the utilization and the distribution of human resources accordingly and eventually to the placement of HIV in the actual budgets of the ministries. That is our call on the government and we are confident that the relationship that we have already started with the government, I think will take us to this level in a smooth transition over the next few years of the national operational plan. So once we establish our systems, make sure they are in action plans and budgets of the various ministries, we continue to have civil society strong at our back, then our HIV response will be sustainable.”