Global Fund money won’t revive NGOs

Theresia Tjihenuna

THE Namibia Network of AIDS Service Organisations (Nanaso) says the N$200 million that was allocated to the HIV-AIDS programmes by the Geneva-based Global Fund should not be expected to breath new life into the NGOs that have shut down due to lack of funds.

“The demand is higher than the supply. There will still be a gap because we will not be able to entirely meet all demands. People living with HIV need extra support and the available funds are still not adequate,” Nanaso Executive Director Sandie Tjaronda said during an interview with The Namibian.

Tjaronda said the orgainsation has gone from over 400 registered NGOs in 2010 to a mere 233 members because many were forced to shut down due to drying-up of funds because of donor-funding withdrawals in recent years.

He said NGOs like Lironga Eparu that were established by HIV positive people for HIV positive people have left a gap in services specifically targeting HIV positive people.

“Right now, NGOs focusing on people living with the virus are far in-between. This constituency needs specific services that target them,” he said.

He said many organisations shut their doors shortly after external donors withdrew their financial support.

This included the vital centres for testing and counselling, the New Start Centre, who suffered greatly since the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (Pepfar) decided to withdraw their funding.

“More than 50 New Start Centres face danger of closing down. This is a big blow in the HIV fight because these centres offer a very important service in terms of voluntary testing and counselling which gives individuals the knowledge on their HIV status so that they can manage the disease before their infection advances,” he said.

Tjaronda said the decision by the World Bank to classify Namibia as an upper-middle class country that has enough resources to cater for its own people does not take into account the country’s high poverty levels.

“Namibia is one of the countries with a wide-gap between the rich and the poor. The poor are the most susceptible to HIV infection because they get involved in transactional sex and cannot afford medical expenses,” he said. He said Namibia’s population may be small in number, but that implementing HIV programmes and awareness in the country remains one of the costliest exercises.

“Donors think it is a waste of funds investing in such a small population but we need a lot of funding to be able to reach the community on the ground and this is not an easy task,” he explains.

Tjaronda however said that Namibia cannot continue relying on external donors and that both the public and private sectors in the country need to invest in the fight against HIV. “There is a need for a public-private sector partnership, which currently does not exist,” he said.

He also said the government has not been supportive of NGOs in the country as is the situation in other countries. He said that NGO operations are community-based while government operations are facility-based.

“NGOs reach down to the people on the ground, they reach out to the communities and take the services to the people while government services are only accessible at certain times of the day and at certain places, that is why NGOs deserve support from the government,” he said.

Tjaronda commended the Ministry of Health and Social Services for its 60% effort in the supplying and rolling out of drugs and said the country should not lose sight of any intervention or preventive measures.

“We have abandoned the prevention and intervention aspect of the fight, and we need to refocus our efforts on these aspects so that we are not faced with new infections,” he said.

He said that currently, Nanaso is the principal recipient of funds in the country from the Global Fund and has 10 sub-recipients such as the Catholic AIDS Action, Red Cross, Phillipi Trust Namibia and others that in turn distribute the resources to the different communities.

Tjaronda said the recent funding received from the Global Fund will be invested in four core areas, mainly key population, Prevention of Mother-to-Child-Transmissions, treatment, care and support and voluntary male-circumcision.

“We will also be advancing in cross-cutting social behavioural change, advancing condom protection and distribution as well as HIV counselling and testing,” he aid.

He said the Namibia Coordinating Committee for HIV- AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is the body that oversees the implementation of the Global Fund’s resources in Namibia.