AllAfrica.com is reporting that major donors supporting the fight against HIV/Aids in Tanzania have announced the withdrawal of funding by the year 2015. Donors that will be withdrawing support include Denmark, Canada and the United States.
The author writes:
“The warning was sounded recently by the Executive Chairperson of the Tanzania Commission for AIDS (TACAIDS), Dr. Fatma Mrisho, when she paid a courtesy call on Coast Regional Commissioner (RC), Mwantumu Mahiza.
Dr. Mrisho said, ‘As we are talking now, I have just met representatives from CIDA and DANIDA – both of whom have confirmed to me that they will no longer contribute to the National Multi-Sectoral Strategic Framework (NMSF) – with effect from 2015.’
‘We, as a nation, need to get prompt replacement for the funding, failure of which all the achievements made in the fight against HIV and Aids for more than 20 years will experience a heavy blow,’ she added. The Danish and Canadian governments, through their international development agencies DANIDA and CIDA, respectively, constitute a group of key donors who have been contributing to NMSF for many years.”
Some believe that HIV is no longer a dire situation and local charities and organizations can replace the funding that is being withdrawn, while others believe that the loss of this funding will take Tanzania’s HIV rates back to the level where former President Benjamin Mkapa declared HIV a national disaster over a decade ago.
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Read the article in its entirety at AllAfrica.com.
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