Activists welcome AIDS budget

AIDS activists welcomed the increased expenditure on HIV/AIDS in the South African 2002-2003 budget released last week, but expressed concern that the funds could be misused at provinical level.

"We are pleased that progress is being made by the treasury in combating the HIV/AIDS epidemic. There is now a basis to move forward on this issue," the Treatment Action Campaign said in a statement on Monday.

In his budget speech, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel said that in addition to an estimated R4 billion (US $348 million) spent by provincial health departments on AIDS-related illnesses, funding for "prevention programmes in schools and communities, hospital treatment and community-care programmes will amount to R1 billion (US $87 million) next year, rising to R1.8 billion (US $156 million) in 2004/5."

This amount included a "progressive roll-out of a programme to prevent mother-to-child transmission at the conclusion of the current trials," Manuel added.

"Last year's budget for HIV/AIDS was closer to R340 million (US $29.6 million) so there's been a significant increase," HIV/AIDS researcher for the Budget Information Service at IDASA Alison Hickey, told PlusNews on Tuesday. The budget was "impressive" as it had allocated specific funds for the mother-to-child prevention programme and home based care projects for the first time, she said.

According to the statement by the group, an analysis of the HIV/AIDS budget for the next three years indicated that a modest rollout of a treatment programme was feasible but unless a treatment plan was developed at national level, this was unlikely to happen.

"We are also concerned that this money is not ring-fenced (directed at specific programmes), thereby opening the door for misuse at provincial level. The TAC and other civil society organisations will therefore be focusing some of our advocacy efforts towards provincial governments to ensure that they spend this money on an appropriate response to the epidemic," the statement added.

"A problem that we identified in previous years was the underspending of HIV/AIDS funds by provinical governments," Hickey said. She welcomed the new ways in which the budget had tried to address this problem, particularly the earmarking of US $583,500, which would increase management capacity and improve the health sector's response to the pandemic.