SA Awarded B-symbol for its AIDS efforts. 26/11/08
November 26, 2008
South Africa has flunked with an E-symbol (0-20 percent) when it comes to the amount of money spent on HIV and Aids, but attained an overall B-symbol for its response to the epidemic on the Aids Accountability Country Scorecard.
The scorecard, released by Aids Accountability International (AAI) in Stockholm on Wednesday, rates the information that countries provide to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and Aids.
The scorecard - which rates data collection, the focus on most-at-risk populations, treatment, prevention, co-ordination, civil society, and financing - was developed over two years with the help of experts from, among others, Harvard University in the US and the University of Cape Town.
South Africa got a D for data collection due to poor reporting, which had not improved since the last assessment.
There was an improvement in antiretroviral coverage (from two percent in 2004 to 28 percent in 2008), but overall performance remained poor (D), with only just more than 25 percent of those needing treatment getting it.
"The low score (on this point) is due to poor performance rather than poor reporting," AAI said.
In terms of the environment in which civil society organisations operated, South Africa fared better. Civil society rated the government 7/10 for last year, compared to 4/10 for 2005.
For financing, South Africa got an E.
AAI said South Africa had spent $621,6-million (about R6-billion) responding to HIV and Aids. With an estimated 5,7-million people living with HIV and Aids, this equated to about R1 120 per HIV-positive person per year.
Of this money, more than 77 percent comes from domestic resources, but equates to only two percent of the gross national income per capita - another reason to give South Africa an E in this category.
The symbol was also partly due to poor reporting.
AAI said reporting on national responses to HIV and Aids was so incomplete that it was difficult to compare how countries were performing or analyse governments' progress in fulfilling their national commitments on HIV and Aids.
"Despite significant expertise and resources, much of our knowledge about responses to HIV and Aids rests on assumptions that have yet to be validated," said AAI chairperson Lars Kallings.
"There are also important gaps in the information reported, for example, on human rights and gender issues: if a country can't account for how women's specific vulnerabilities to Aids are being addressed, we can't claim to know whether a response is successful or not."
AAI founder and executive director Rodrigo Garay said there was no independent rating system that held governments and other actors accountable for their promises.
"AAI is now changing that, building on experience from other fields where rating mechanisms have proved to be powerful tools for ensuring accountability."
The scorecard is a resource for those working to improve national responses to HIV and Aids through greater transparency and accountability.
This article was originally published in The Star on Wednesday 26 November 2008.