Funding &HIV Bill Brieger | 18 Apr 2025 06:38 am
Securing the Future of HIV/AIDS Treatment in South Africa
As part of the work for the Johns Hopkins University course on Social and Behavioral Foundations of Primary Health Care, Skylar Chapdelaine posted in the class blog about HIV/AIDS Treatment in South Africa.
South Africa has the highest global burden of HIV with over 7.7 million people living with the virus. While over 5 million people are on antiretroviral therapy (ART), the decline of international funding especially from the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief challenges the sustainability of this.
For years the United States has played an important role in financing South Africa’s HIV response; however, as this money is expected to be lost, South Africa must seek alternative funding mechanisms to sustain programming.
Initiatives and Challenges
Despite financial uncertainties, South Africa has announced a goal of putting an additional 1.1 million people on treatment by the end of 2025 as a step towards their ending AIDS as a threat by 2030.
However, challenges persist. The loss of funding has already affected healthcare personnel, drug supply chains, and monitoring systems. Community organizations such as the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) have previously been instrumental in expanding ART access, but the financial constraints are limiting their availability to help advocate for patients.
Additionally, international pharmaceutical companies dominate the ART market. Intellectual property restrictions limit local production making ART expensive and difficult to scale up. Without affordable alternatives, millions with HIV could face interruptions in treatment.
Strategies for Engaging Stakeholders
To influence policymakers to secure a sustainable future for HIV treatment, stakeholders need to be strategically engaged.
One of the most crucial stakeholders in this, the South African National AIDS Council (SANAC), plays an important role in coordinating the national HIV response through uniting multiple sectors. SANAC can lead by organizing regular policy roundtables and cross sector forums that bring government officials, civil society leaders, and private sector representatives together. By facilitating these conversations, SANAC can guide the development of policy briefs that offer evidence based solutions, such as strategies to boost local ART production and sustainable financing models and engage policymakers.
Without urgent action from policymakers to begin securing sustainable funding, millions of South Africans are at risk of disruptions in their treatment.