Catumbela – The provinces of Benguela and Cuanza Sul will begin to implement, in July 1st, a financing of $82.6 million, donated by the Global Fund (FG).
The amount is intended to combat HIV, tuberculosis and malaria in Angola, until 2024.
This new investment by the Global Fund, an international organization based in Switzerland, aims to help Angola reduce, by more than 50%, the incidence of HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, in the period from July 2021 to June 2024.
It is in this context that the vice-president of the National Coordination Mechanism of the Global Fund in Angola, António Coelho, hopes that the authorities of these provinces assume the commitment to contribute, so that the organizations involved in the fight against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria reach the targets set by national authorities.
Speaking in Benguela, at the end of a summit on leadership, community health, monitoring and evaluation, António Coelho estimates that around 50 organizations from the two provinces applied for the public tender, conducted by the non-governmental organization Ajuda de Desenvolvimento de Povo para Povo – ADPP (Development Aid for People to People, in English), for access to available resources.
He explained that of the $82.6 million allocated by the Global Fund, more than US $50million will be allocated to the province of Benguela and the rest to Kwanza Sul.
Once approved, the organizations will work with the UNDP (United Nations Development Program), as manager of the Global Fund program in Angola, especially in actions linked to information campaigns and educational intervention in communities, in the prevention component of diseases.
Hence, it justified the training of 50 leaders of organizations, including activists in Benguela, by the Angolan Network of Aids Service Organizations (ANASO), with the support of the Global Fund, through the UNDP, to get knowledge and skills that will allow them to intervene with greater capacity in the communities.
As this is the first time that civil society organizations in Benguela will have considerable funding, the president of ANASO believes in a better response to combat these diseases for three years, with the help of the FG as its main purpose to improve the Angolans' quality of life.
Mentioning just an example, António Coelho, who considers the current health context as serious, recalls that the country has been recording daily an average of more than 80 new cases of HIV, more than 500 of tuberculosis and more than 2k cases of malaria, including more than 100 other new Covid-19 infections.
In the specific case of the province of Benguela, he added that the municipality of Lobito alone has diagnosed more than 500 cases of malaria/day, while in Cubal the cases of HIV and tuberculosis are increasing alarmingly.
"So, we have to roll up our sleeves and declare war against these epidemics", he said, stressing the idea that this is the reason why ANASO is empowering community leaders and activists, so that these provinces respond positively to related questions with these diseases.
More optimistic UNAIDS
Michel Kouakou, UNAIDS representative in Angola, is pleased that as from July Benguela will implement the Global Fund's investment for HIV, tuberculosis and malaria, hoping that the organizations involved in the project will share information on health in the communities from the eldest to the smallest children.
In the opinion of the representative of UNAIDS, a United Nations program created in 1996 to help countries fight AIDS, it is necessary to first understand the local context and the realities of the communities, to be sure that the money will be used to bring about the best results to the benefit of populations.
The UNDP team leader in Benguela, Inocêncio José, also says that the country is going through a serious health crisis, which “overwhelms” hospitals. Therefore, it speaks of the importance of having preventive initiatives in communities to strengthen the national health system.
For him, with organizations aligned to respond to this challenge over the next three years, Benguela could present significantly reduced mortality or infection rates associated with malaria, tuberculosis and HIV.
Created in 2002, the Global Fund aims to raise and donate resources to prevent and treat diseases, mainly HIV, tuberculosis and malaria in underdeveloped countries. From 2005 until today, it has made a package worth 350 million dollars available to the country.
As this investment did not produce the expected results and, after talks with government authorities, this international organization decided to maintain its commitments to Angola for another three years, but limited its intervention in only two of the 18 provinces, namely in Benguela and Cuanza Sul.
