Govt earmarks 3bn/- seed money for Aids trust fund

The government has set aside a total of Sh3bn for the establishment of an AIDS Trust Fund (ATF) as earlier proposed by Parliament aimed at reducing dependency on donor aid.

 The fund basically aims at increasing country‘s domestic resource allocation to the national HIV and AIDS response.   The decision to establish the fund was proposed in the last parliament where MPs underscored the importance for the country to build its capacity to serve its HIV patients instead of depending solely on donor aid.  In an interview with The Guardian yesterday in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania Commission for AIDS (TACAIDS) Director for Finance and Administration, Yassin Abbas, said the process for establishment of the fund had started under the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare in collaboration with TACAIDS. “When the fund will be in operation, 50 per cent of the funds will be allocated to medication,” Abbas noted.   “We are now at the stage of forming a board of trustees which will be composed of eight members, four from the government and the other four from the private sector, along with coming up with guidelines which will oversee the operation of the fund,” he said.  
According to him, it was no longer certain to obtain funds from donors for HIV/AIDS prevalence because its prevalance in the country had decreased to a large extent and hence it was no longer a priority for their funding.    “Therefore, we can no longer depend on their support as it was not guaranteed,” said the director. “The government is not ready to see its citizens suffer from HIV/AIDS due to lack of funds to purchase medicines. We will make sure we are able to serve our people,” Abbas maintained. He added that the government, the private sector and individuals would be major contributors to the fund under a mechanism to be established soon.  Among other thing, the fund will focus on impact mitigation for both children and women to ensure that effective medication is constantlly available to them.  Abbas also assured the public that, there would be no shortage of ARVs for patients as the Global Fund (GF) was still supplying the medicines to Tanzania. “The government always renews the contract with GF after every two years for them to proceed rendering the services to us, hence we are sure that the society should not fear for their heath,” the Tacaids official said.  Abbasi noted that they planned to conduct a fund-raiser that will include stakeholders from private sector, GF and Tacaids, civil society organizations (CSOs) and the government. SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN