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The Jakarta Post

June 11, 2007 Monday

HIV PROJECTS BRUSH OFF FUNDING FREEZE

LENGTH: 578 words

from THE JAKARTA POST -- MONDAY, JUNE 11, 2007 -- PAGE 4 Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working on HIV/AIDS in  Jakarta have said the suspension of funding in March by international donor Global Fund has not affected their harm  reduction efforts
At the sidelines of a seminar on HIV/AIDS, Farid Budiman from the National Action Network for Drug Harm Reduction  Programs (Jangkar) told The Jakarta Post on Friday that the programs were still ongoing despite the funding freeze
"NGOs usually do not rely just on one donor to implement their programs. There's still funding from other  donors," said Farid, who oversees the network in Greater Jakarta
"For the HIV/AIDS prevention program, besides Global Fund there is also AusAid, USAid and Partnership  Fund," he said
Global Fund froze its funds for HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis in March after its auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers   found potential conflicts of interest
Funds were suspended until Indonesia was seen to introduce more transparent financial management practices and reduce  any potential conflicts of interest in the administration of the funds
The director general of communicable diseases at the Health Ministry I Nyoman Kandun said the government had carried   out improvements in how the funds would be managed. He said he believed Global Fund would resume the flow of aid by the   end of the month
The Geneva-based organization froze around 40 percent of the total funds it had promised for Indonesia. Around  US$208.47 million had already been spent by the organization since January 2003 on fighting HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and   malaria
Although NGOs working on HIV/AIDS prevention said the fund suspension had not had a significant impact on their  programs, a health organization working on tuberculosis prevention said the freeze could disrupt the sustainability of  the national program to control tuberculosis
Farid said efforts to control all three diseases were highly dependent on international funding
He said HIV/AIDS prevention in Indonesia should not continue to rely on international donors. He added that the  government should phase out the country's dependency on international funds by allocating money in state budget and  regional budgets to fight the diseases
Family Health International's injecting drug user intervention officer Rizky Ika Syafitri also said the country   should phase out the use of foreign funds
She said that the government should be more heavily involved in HIV/AIDS prevention
"Whose responsibility is health in this country? It's the government's. That's why, gradually,  programs implemented by NGOs and funded by donors should become national programs," she said
However, Rizky conceded that NGO workers were more skilled than the government at reaching out to high risk  groups
But Farid contended that the government could succeed at outreach
"The birth control program was a success. The government did door-to- door outreach with the community. I think   they should be able to do it again with HIV/AIDS prevention," Farid said
The head of the Health Ministry's HIV/AIDS subdirectorate, Sigit Priyohutomo, said the government was  anticipating the phase out of international donor funds
"We've built a system in which the funding for HIV/AIDS programs will be taken from state budgets and  regional and district budgets," he said
He did not specify how much money had been allocated
Prodita Sabarini, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta Copyright 2007 The Jakarta Post

LOAD-DATE: June 11, 2007

LANGUAGE: ENGLISH

ACC-NO: A2007061136-14FC9-GNW

PUBLICATION-TYPE: Other

JOURNAL-CODE: FJKP

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