Zimbabweans Living With Hiv And Ngos Fear Impact Of Us Aid Freeze

Zimbabweans living with HIV and non-governmental organizations reliant on US funding have raised concerns over the potential consequences of the United States withdrawal from the World Health Organization WHO and the 90-day freeze on foreign development aid.

The freeze could hinder Zimbabwes progress in meeting WHO targets, which include increasing antiretroviral therapy ARV roll-out, reducing AIDS-related deaths and expanding access to HIV testing.

HIV activist Tendai Westerhof says. "It's important that they find common ground to talk in a mature way as the US is always seen as a leader when it comes to issues of health, and a lot of countries look up to them."

She adds: "To us as African countries, I just urge us that we should always come up with mechanisms where we have strong domestic finances for our health programmes, including surveillance, instead of being too dependent on funders and donors because sometimes we have no control over them. If they decide to pull out, it's their money, they can pull out. But we must have our resources."

Zimbabwe's health sector has previously benefitted significantly from US support, and the aid freeze raises concerns about sustaining critical health programs.