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ZAN
gets audience with the Hon Tendai Biti - Minister of Finance
Zimbabwe
AIDS Network (ZAN)
April 17, 2011
"HIV
and AIDS is an apolitical issue and should be supported in the interest
of saving lives. Present me with a concept note on how much Zimbabwe
needs per year from the national budget to keep people living with
HIV and AIDS on treatment and I will be your advocate!"
Those were the
positive sentiments shared by the Hon Minister of Finance, Tendai
Biti during a meeting with the ZAN National Director at the Minister's
offices on Friday the 13th April 2012.
The objective
of the meeting was to share concerns on the ever diminishing external
resources and the need for a concerted effort to mobilize resources
for financing HIV and AIDS programming. During the meeting, a Civil
Society Position Paper on Health, HIV and AIDS Financing in Zimbabwe
was pressed to the Minister. The Position Paper was developed at
the end of January 2012 through a consultative process involving
thirty-six (36) representatives of civil society organisations responding
to Health, HIV and AIDS in Zimbabwe.
Other documents
presented during the meeting include ZAN publications which include:
- Zimbabwe
Civil Society Organisations responding to HIV and AIDS Position
Paper for the 2011 UNGASS High Level Meeting held in New York
in 2011;
- Health,
HIV and AIDS Sector Position Paper on the Constitution Making
Process (2010);
- Health, HIV
and AIDS Sector Position Paper on Keeping the Promise of allocating
15% of the national budget for health financing as per Abuja Declaration
of 2001.
During the meeting,
Lindiwe Chaza-Jangira, ZAN National Director urged the Minister
of Finance to expedite the utilization of local resources/minerals
to support HIV and AIDS programmes.
"Tax
breaks from big companies prevent reaching an ideal revenue base
and therefore, appropriate action should be taken if living conditions
of the most vulnerable communities are to improve", she
urged the Minister.
Whilst the minister
agreed with the recommendation, he was quick to point out that local
resources alone would not be enough. He also indicated that today's
economic environment bars Zimbabwe from effecting tax breaks. It
is against this backdrop that the Minister offered to be an advocate
to continue to court outside supporters.
The meeting
with the Minister of Finance was a pursuance of the advocacy to
mobilize resources to fill the anticipated financial gap in view
of the cancellation of the Global Fund Round 11 Application in 2010.
Zimbabwe was applying for USD60m of which 40m earmarked for HIV
and AIDS. Whilst the cancellation of Round 11 Application, has no
immediate implication as it would have commenced in 2014 after the
exhaustion of Global Fund Round 8 Phase 11 grant, there is a huge
gap in the number of people on Art and those in need.
According to
ZNASP (2011-2015), over 326 241 people were on ART out of an estimated
600 000+ needy people. Therefore, the USD40m would have benefited
the almost 300 000 out of treatment whilst continuing to support
all the people in need of treatment.
Visit the Zimbabwe
AIDS Network fact
sheet
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