Devex: What’s behind PEPFAR’s funding cut threats?
“As it wraps up its latest funding round, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief is prepared to introduce unprecedented cuts to country programs in sub-Saharan Africa, designed to spur domestic policy changes and programmatic improvements. But observers warn that if enacted, the cuts could undermine advances those countries have made against the HIV epidemic, particularly among marginalized communities that struggle to access health services. … Planned spending in Kenya fell from $505 million in [the FY 2018] Country Operational Plan to $350 million in [the FY 2019] plan. Tanzania fell from $512 million to $395 million. … With these cuts, PEPFAR is intensifying its message that if a country is not making progress toward specific targets, either for programmatic or policy reasons, then the money will go elsewhere. ‘This last COP round has been more of a heavy hand,’ Jen Kates, director of global health and HIV policy at the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, told Devex…” (Green, 6/11).