ACCRA, Ghana, July 21, (v7n) – UNAIDS chief Winnie Byanyima on Tuesday called for "radical change" following global aid cuts, telling AFP that African governments must re-prioritise their own health spending to protect progress against HIV and other diseases.
Last year, the Trump administration dismantled USAID, cutting off funding for programmes worldwide, while other Western countries including France, Germany, and the UK also slashed foreign assistance. UNAIDS lost about 25 percent of its total financial aid, Byanyima said.
"So there is a need for Africa to quickly adapt its systems for health in order to keep its people alive and to work towards health sovereignty," she said on the sidelines of an African Union health summit in Accra. "We don't have time to lose. This is a moment of radical change."
Africa carries the highest HIV burden globally, with 64 percent of people living with HIV residing in sub-Saharan Africa, and 60 percent of new infections occurring on the continent last year.
Byanyima said every country must make financial and structural decisions to protect people's health, including financing more projects domestically, re-allocating existing funds, and using scarce money more efficiently. "We must re-prioritise. We must spend differently if the health of our people is to be protected," she said, adding that Africa must also move toward producing its own medicines. "If we do not do that, for sure we will halt our progress."
Beyond financing, she lamented a "serious pushback on human rights" for those with HIV, which was "pushing people underground" and away from testing, prevention, and treatment. A string of African countries, including Ghana, have increased penalties on same-sex relations, further eroding LGBTQ rights on a continent where only about 20 of 54 countries do not currently criminalise same-sex relations.
