USAids relief programme head John Nkengasong is committed to persuading Congress to return to granting a five-year reauthorisation of the programme, he said in Botswana last week.
Initiated by former Republican President George W Bush in 2003 to support countries hardest hit by the HIV/Aids pandemic, including South Africa, the President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar) remains the biggest foreign donor to SA’s HIV/Aids programmes, now providing more than $450m a year.
For the past 20 years, Pepfar has had strong bipartisan support in the US Congress, which has routinely agreed to reauthorise funding on a five-year term.
However, that changed last year when a polarised Congress got ensnared in a broader US debate about access to abortion in that country, and delayed reauthorising funding – eventually granting it for only 12 months.
While Pepfar is enshrined in US law, the failure to approve another five-year spending plan has created uncertainty for recipient countries like SA, reports BusinessLIVE.
In Gaborone last Thursday, Nkengasong said his priority was to work with Congress “to get a clear five-year authorisation” to enable sustained support for Pepfar-supported countries.
The US had, for the past 21 years, been a “committed and proud” partner to African countries hit hard by HIV/Aids and would continue to be so, he added.
Nkengasong is on a tour of African countries supported by Pepfar and also visited SA last week.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
US to buy African-made ARVs for Pepfar programme
Pepfar boss pledges ongoing support to SA in HIV/Aids fight
Politics holds up US funding of Pepfar
‘Colossal impact’ fears as US anti-abortion lobby threatens to kill Pepfar