Close Menu

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the latest creative news from FooBar about art, design and business.

    What's Hot

    Springboks captain Siya Kolisi’s situation raises fears for 2025

    July 4, 2025

    South Africa: G20 Tourism Priorities Programme Goes to Northern Cape

    July 4, 2025

    R17.6m green economy grant to boost SA youth job creation

    July 4, 2025
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram
    • Home
    • Contact Us
    • About Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms Of Service
    • Advertisement
    Friday, July 4
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram Pinterest Vimeo
    ABSA Africa TV
    • Breaking News
    • Africa News
    • World News
    • Editorial
    • Environ/Climate
    • More
      • Cameroon
      • Ambazonia
      • Politics
      • Culture
      • Travel
      • Sports
      • Technology
      • AfroSingles
    • Donate
    ABSLive
    ABSA Africa TV
    Home»Health»Russell Rensburg | This is how SA could respond to US aid cuts • Spotlight
    Health

    Russell Rensburg | This is how SA could respond to US aid cuts • Spotlight

    Njih FavourBy Njih FavourJuly 4, 2025No Comments7 Mins Read
    Facebook Twitter Pinterest Telegram LinkedIn Tumblr Email Reddit
    Russell Rensburg | This is how SA could respond to US aid cuts • Spotlight
    Share
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Email Copy Link


    Russell Rensburg | This is how SA could respond to US aid cutsUS President Donald Trump’s administration has cut life-saving aid to many African countries. (Photo: White House/Shealah Craighead)

    Comment & Analysis

    4th July 2025 | Russell Rensburg

    South Africa still lacks an action plan after the withdrawal of US aid for HIV and related health services. But when funds do arrive, how will they be managed? Russell Rensburg suggests the answer may lie in the District Health Programme Grant.


    The government’s extended silence on how it plans to solve the funding crisis created by the withdrawal of US aid has thrown much of the health sector in South Africa into severe despair.

    It has been five months since the withdrawal of the aid amounting to about R7 billion per year. It covered the salaries for 15 000 health workers, of which 8 000 are community health workers, 2 000 are nurses, and 300 are doctors working in 27 of South Africa’s high HIV priority districts. As a result, volumes of high-risk populations have lost access to care, while overstretched healthcare workers are facing increased pressure amid ongoing staff shortages.

    Recently, the Global HIV Treatment Coalition and a bevy of civil society organisations wrote a strongly worded letter to the government demanding action on a fully costed emergency plan. They accused the state of not taking concerted action.

    They are not wrong: The government has still not made a clear plan available to the public, although there is consensus on the urgent need to strengthen the emergency response.

    Plans have been developed internally in the National Department of Health, and a national technical support unit has been established in the office of the health department’s director-general to support the integration of services. It is understood that several provinces are being supported to develop provincial transition plans that can be translated into concrete action.

    THE BOTTOM LINE | It looks like some relief is finally on the cards following the abrupt US funding cuts.

    Find out more: https://t.co/XaiZj1Pn0o

    Join our mailing list: https://t.co/ya957ntqMY pic.twitter.com/mNwQ7QGnDj

    — Spotlight (@SpotlightNSP) May 23, 2025

    But ongoing discussions with National Treasury have made little meaningful progress to close the funding gap. Treasury has indicated that any new funding will either be part of the adjustment budget or as an emergency allocation. At this stage, it is still unclear how much money, if any, will be allocated.

    There is another challenge that is yet to be considered. When the funding does arrive, there will need to be consensus on how the money is co-ordinated, incubated and managed.

    Here the answer may already be in our back pockets in the form of the District Health Programme Grant. The grant is a mechanism for funding the country’s public health efforts, particularly relating to HIV, TB, and other communicable diseases. As an existing instrument, this grant programme could help address issues linked to the funding gap and lay the foundation for the sustainable integration of activities previously funded by the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

    Why the District Health Programme Grant could work

    The District Health Programme Grant presents an ideal mechanism that can be used to strengthen governance and ensure that the funding, plans and activities down to a district level align with national campaigns and priorities.

    But the grant would need to be amended to ensure that there is improved management of the conditionalities so that the funds invested meet its purpose. Conditional grants are funds allocated to provinces with a primary purpose of ensuring that national priorities are implemented consistently across the country. They facilitate targeted service delivery, equity, accountability and performance monitoring.

    The District Health Programme Grant, which currently has a budget of about R25 billion, already has a large HIV component so additional funding for both the HIV and TB services that are needed could easily be allocated to this grant.

    And if the health department amended the grant mechanism to allow for the contracting in of service providers, such as the PEPFAR implementing agents which are mostly local NGOs previously funded by the US government, the country would be able to use the capacity built up over time in these organisations to strengthen the delivery of HIV and TB services.

    The concern, however, is accountability.

    In the current set up of the grant, provinces have the ability to act more autonomously and the grant conditionalities are poorly managed. However, for the system to be more effective, there needs to be a greater emphasis on co-operative engagement where two-way reporting between national and provinces can take place.

    Amending the grant to include stronger accountability mechanisms would help the health department to better co-ordinate and manage it.

    The clock is ticking

    The funding gap comes at a time when the health department has launched two ambitious campaigns to tackle HIV and TB. The Close the Gap campaign aims to enrol a record number – an additional 1.1 million – of people living with HIV on life-saving antiretroviral medicine this year. Along with teenage girls and young women, the initiative prioritises an estimated 600 000 men who know their status but are not on treatment. This campaign aligns with the country’s strategy to END TB by 2030. This year, the health department also hopes to accelerate TB case finding by scaling up testing to 5 million TB tests to reduce the high rate of infections and deaths.

    The linkages between the campaigns make sense. TB is the leading co-morbidity for people living with HIV. HIV is also the leading contributor to TB mortality, accounting for an estimated 55% of TB deaths, according to the World Health Organisation’s data on TB in South Africa. The campaigns are evidence-informed and well considered.

    But the ambition is not matched by budgets that can support and ultimately enable its success. In addition to the R7 billion PEPFAR funding gap, there is a funding gap of at least R600 million in TB required to sufficiently fund the required 5 million tests needed for the campaign. Funding pressures at the provincial level are also constraining the scaling up of the capacity required to administer the tests.

    Related Posts

    A recent analysis from the South African National AIDS Council (SANAC) situation room which every month evaluates the HIV response as part of the Close the Gap campaign suggests that while there are increases in the number of people being initiated on HIV treatment, the pace is not fast enough to mitigate the losses the country experiences in retaining patients in care. This has resulted in negative growth in many high prevalence districts.

    Similarly, in the first TB provincial managers programme meeting co-ordinated by the National TB programme, reports on the poor performance against the testing targets belied the underlying frustrations many are experiencing.

    South Africa has made incredible progress in expanding access to healthcare in the last 30 years. These include significant declines in maternal mortality, decreases in the under 5 mortality rates, and significant declines in the incidence of TB. Much of this success – particularly in the last decade – is the result of the mass rollout of lifesaving antiretroviral treatment to about 6 million of the estimated 8 million people living with HIV in the country.

    But the abrupt withdrawal of US aid has put at least some of this progress under threat.

    As we look to the mid-year adjustments budget, we don’t just need new money to plug the gap, we also need a sensible framework for spending that money. Channelling the funds through a tweaked District Health Programme Grant is a financial solution that will both provide some quick relief and that will mitigate the impact that the funding gap will have on universal health coverage more broadly in the long run.

    *Rensburg is director of the Rural Health Advocacy Project and project director for the TB Accountability Consortium.

    Note: Spotlight aims to deepen public understanding of important health issues by publishing a variety of views on its opinion pages. The views expressed in this article are not necessarily shared by the Spotlight editors.





    Source link

    Post Views: 5
    Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Email
    Njih Favour
    • Website

    Related Posts

    Welkom Residents Demand End To Water Crisis And Sewage Spills 

    July 4, 2025

    Stinkwater Residents Live Along Streets Overflowing With Sewage

    July 3, 2025

     SAHPRA undergoes training to strengthen its regulatory capabilities

    July 2, 2025
    Leave A Reply Cancel Reply

    Top Posts

    Who is Duma Boko, Botswana’s new President?

    November 6, 2024

    As African Leaders Gather in Addis Ababa to Pick a New Chairperson, They are Reminded That it is Time For a Leadership That Represents True Pan-Africanism

    January 19, 2025

    BREAKING NEWS: Tapang Ivo Files Federal Lawsuit Against Nsahlai Law Firm for Defamation, Seeks $100K in Damages

    March 14, 2025

    Kamto Not Qualified for 2025 Presidential Elections on Technicality Reasons, Despite Declaration of Candidacy

    January 18, 2025
    Don't Miss

    Springboks captain Siya Kolisi’s situation raises fears for 2025

    By Prudence MakogeJuly 4, 2025

    Springboks captain Siya Kolisi will miss the upcoming test against Italy after sustaining an Achilles…

    Your Poster Your Poster

    South Africa: G20 Tourism Priorities Programme Goes to Northern Cape

    July 4, 2025

    R17.6m green economy grant to boost SA youth job creation

    July 4, 2025

    Ekrem Imamoglu, rival of Turkish president Erdogan, faces a new criminal charge

    July 4, 2025
    Stay In Touch
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Pinterest
    • Instagram
    • YouTube
    • Vimeo

    Subscribe to Updates

    Sign up and get the latest breaking ABS Africa news before others get it.

    About Us
    About Us

    ABS TV, the first pan-African news channel broadcasting 24/7 from the diaspora, is a groundbreaking platform that bridges Africa with the rest of the world.

    We're accepting new partnerships right now.

    Address: 9894 Bissonette St, Houston TX. USA, 77036
    Contact: +1346-504-3666

    Facebook X (Twitter) Pinterest YouTube WhatsApp
    Our Picks

    Springboks captain Siya Kolisi’s situation raises fears for 2025

    July 4, 2025

    South Africa: G20 Tourism Priorities Programme Goes to Northern Cape

    July 4, 2025

    R17.6m green economy grant to boost SA youth job creation

    July 4, 2025
    Most Popular

    Springboks captain Siya Kolisi’s situation raises fears for 2025

    July 4, 2025

    Did Paul Biya Actually Return to Cameroon on Monday? The Suspicion Behind the Footage

    October 23, 2024

    Surrender 1.9B CFA and Get Your D.O’: Pirates Tell Cameroon Gov’t

    October 23, 2024
    Facebook X (Twitter) Instagram Pinterest YouTube
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms Of Service
    © 2025 Absa Africa TV. All right reserved by absafricatv.

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.