Minister of Health, Hon. Rudyard Spencer has appealed to the representatives of the Global Fund to provide continued funding of HIV/AIDS programmes in Jamaica. This comes against the background of Jamaica now being ineligible for funding as a result of being categorised as an upper middle income country.

Speaking at the opening of the Global Fund Country Coordinating and Regional Coordinating Mechanisms Workshop held at the Rose Hall Resort and Spa in Montego Bay, St. James this morning (Monday, September 6, 2010), Minister Spencer said despite this grouping Jamaica is now facing serious fiscal challenges and will not be able to take over funding of HIV/AIDS programmes in the next three years.

“I believe that the donor community must re-examine the classification especially in light of the impact of the global financial crisis. All sectors are in decline in Jamaica, the economy is weak and experiencing a protracted period of no growth and we continue to have a high debt to GDP ratio. This situation has implications for health spending, health seeking behaviours and health outcomes,” explained Minister Spencer.

Jamaica has received US$26.6 Million from the Global Fund to fund programmes over the next three years. This latest funding support will be used to continue prevention, treatment and care interventions.

“Our priority for the next three years will be to increase the number of institutions with HIV workplace policy, continue our efforts to address stigma and discrimination, scale up public education and continue to train health workers, strengthen intersectoral collaboration and strengthen health systems especially our laboratory facilities,” Minister Spencer points out.

“We have a lot more to do in the fight against HIV/AIDS and we fear that without the sustained funding, our gains will be eroded and we will not be able to meet the targets that have been set for us. There is a compelling case to be made for countries such as Jamaica that experienced a food crisis, oil crisis and financial crisis in the last three years to continue to benefit from the support of our donor partners. Despite the progress that the country has made, Jamaica has not won the war against HIV/AIDS. Twenty seven thousand (27,000) persons are living with the diseases. Some 50% of persons infected are unaware of their status,” the Minister says.

He says in addition, Jamaica has an adult prevalence rate of 1.6%. However, there is a higher HIV prevalence among the at risk populations such as men who have sex with men, commercial sex workers and cocaine/crack users. The country has reduced mother to child transmission from 25% to under 5% which the Minister describes as a major success that has been reaped from improving access to antiretroviral (ARV) treatment.

“There is significant work to be accomplished in eliminating stigma and discrimination.  We need the continued support of our partners in this area. In addition, the health systems are not as robust as we would want them to be. It will be a considerable investment to strengthen health systems. We cannot do this on our own,” Minister Spencer said.

Global Fund Regional Manager for Latin America and the Caribbean, Lelio Marmora said the secretariat will be lobbying to the Board of the Global Fund for regional countries that are in a similar position as Jamaica in a bid to try to continue funding support.

“The region is performing well at this time. The Global Fund is satisfied with the performance of the programme in the region. The Global Fund Secretariat will make the case to the Technical Review Panel and the Board for countries that are in a similar position as Jamaica,” he says.

The Global Fund is a unique global public/private partnership dedicated to attracting and disbursing additional resources to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. This partnership involving governments, civil society, the private sector and affected communities represents a new approach to international health financing.  The Global Fund works in close collaboration with other bilateral and multilateral organizations to supplement existing efforts dealing with the three diseases.

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Contact: MOH, Public Relations Unit Tel: 967-1561