Financing the Response

Harold Ngalawa, Khaled Ahmedy and Alan Whiteside 
Public Health Expenditure Implications of the Southern African Customs Union Revenue Volatility in BLNS Countries. 2010

This study sets out to investigate how the volatility of income from the common revenue pool (CRP) of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) is affecting health expenditures, particularly in the HIV/AIDS sector, in Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland (BNLS). The study provides evidence of declining revenues from the CRP accruing to the BLNS countries. The investigation further reveals that this decline in receipts from SACU is likely to continue.

Health Affairs (Millwood), 2009;28(6):1606–16
Financing HIV/AIDS Programs in Sub-Saharan Africa 

This paper offers an analysis of the costs and the financing of HIV/AIDS programs for countries in sub-Saharan Africa. The rate of external financing varies with gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, but not much at all with HIV prevalence. In six of the thirty-four countriese xamined, the costs of HIV/AIDS programs will exceed 3 percent of GDP by 2015. Most of these are low-income countries. Considerable external support at current rates in these countries would help contain the fiscal cost around 1 percent of GDP. But if that support dwindles, countries would have to borrow money or cut back on their own spending for HIV/AIDS. 

 Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes, December 2009 - Volume 52 - Issue - pp S119-S126
Financing the Response to HIV in Low-and Middle-Income Countries

The most striking finding of this article is the mismatch between the types of HIV epidemics and the allocation of resources. The current global economic recession will force countries to rethink national strategies, especially in low-income countries with high aid dependency. Mapping HIV expenditures provides crucial guidance for reallocation of resources and supports evidence-based decisions. Now more than ever, countries need to know and act on their epidemics and give priority to the most effective programmatic services.