Growing public debt is choking sub-Saharan African countries, leaving them with little fiscal room to finance health and critical HIV services. Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for the largest number of people living with HIV, with more than 25.9 million people of the 39.9 million living with HIV globally.
Forecast HIV Response Financing Gaps
The combination of growing public debt payments and spending cuts set out in International Monetary Fund agreements in the next three to five years will, if unaddressed, leave countries dangerously under resourced to fund their HIV responses. If countries fail to effectively look after the health care needs of their people because of debt servicing, global health security is put at risk. Debt repayments exceed 50% of government revenues in Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda, and Zambia. Even after debt relief measures, Zambia will still be paying two-thirds of its budget on debt servicing between 2024 and 2026.
Western and Central Africa will need to mobilize US$ 4.18 billion to fully fund the HIV response in 2024 and this figure will go up to US$ 7.9 billion by 2030. Western and Central Africa had a funding shortfall of 32% in 2022. In 2024, Eastern and Southern Africa will need to mobilize almost US$ 12 billion to fully fund the HIV response. This amount will go up to about US$ 17 billion by 2030 unless new HIV infections are reduced.
Donors need to scale up financial assistance for health and the HIV response between now and 2030, while creditors should offer debt relief to heavily indebted countries to ease the burden.
Involvement of Young People in HIV Response
The world can only benefit when young people are included in the global HIV response. No conversation about HIV should take place without youth – led interventions – from policy to practice in communities. The experience of INERELA+ is young people offer support and share important information about HIV that schools or parents might not talk about. They uphold human rights, challenge stigma and discrimination through social media, helping to save lives and encourage young people to stay on treatment. They drive innovation and transformational work in communities. INERELA+ sees young people as equal contributors and partners in shaping the future.
New Partnerships Formed with Youth Led Organisations
Through a lot of conversations, new partnerships with Youth Led Organisations have been formed that will shape our collective ability to jointly overcome crises and work together toward solutions that prioritize the well-being of humans, animals, and our planet.
Young Volunteers for Environment Zambia our new partner, is a local NGO focused on strengthening youth voices towards building a climate resilient Zambia whilst Innovation Village for Young African Minds is a youths led organization aimed at creating an ecosystem where collaborations, knowledge transfer, and spillover effects can occur in order to spur innovation and transformative change. Their initiatives prioritize environmental sustainability.
Now more than ever, solidarity and collective action are crucial. Let us seize this opportunity to live up to our responsibility, strengthen connections, exchange ideas, and generate impactful solutions — guided by trust and collaboration.
I urge all of us to remain engaged, leveraging our unique strengths as a partnership to promote peace, equity, and the right to health for every woman, girl, child, and youth. Together, we can turn commitments into meaningful change.
Stay safe and stay healthy!!!
Munya Mandipaza
Executive Director