0 Bali should self-finance HIV/AIDS mitigation

The provincial administration is expected to be ready to self-finance its HIV/AIDS mitigation programs within the next two to three years as the two largest funding donors, Global Fund and AusAID, plan on ending their support for Indonesia. Currently, together these two donors fund almost 80 percent of the cost of AIDS mitigation in Bali. 

“All the regional administrations must take this situation seriously and start to increase their budget allocation for HIV/AIDS programs,” said the secretary of the Bali chapter AIDS Mitigation Commission, I Made Suprapta, on Tuesday in Denpasar. Suprapta stated that Global Fund would terminate its funding by 2015, with AusAID ending its participation around 2016. The commission said that some of the regency administrations had already started increasing their budget allocation to take over the HIV/AIDS mitigation programs. 

“There has been an increase of about 10 to 50 percent in budget allocation in all regencies, except Karangasem and Bangli,” he said. Meanwhile, the province itself increased its budget allocation from Rp 800 million (US$82,560) to Rp 1 billion last year. Badung and Denpasar have also each increased their allocation up to almost Rp 1 billion. Nonetheless, Karangasem and Bangli regencies reasoned that due to their small regional revenue, their budget allocation for HIV/AIDS program would have to remain small too. 

Suprapta highlighted that the administrations had to prioritize the correct activities, emphasizing public health for the program. “In Buleleng, we have seen a number of families lose their next generation due to AIDS. The cost of mitigation is huge, but the cost of ignorance can be larger,” said Suprapta. A regional strategic plan based on epidemiological evidence and a survey of routine behavior is required to implement an effective mitigation program. Items on the regional strategic plan are mass public mobilization to voluntarily take HIV testing and counseling at puskesmas (public health centers) and hospitals. 

Suprapta also said that synergy between the government and the NGOs should be strengthened. Kadek Adi Mantara, director of Bali Health Foundation (Yakeba), which has been performing outreach and advocacy among people living with HIV/AIDS, also known as ODHA, and injecting drug users in Bali, said that the 10 NGOs in Bali had learnt about the termination of Global Fund and AusAID funding. “We have prepared an integrated service policy at the puskesmas so that the officers can be more proactive and less discriminative to provide services for people at high risk,” said Adi. 

Lodovickus Gerong of Yayasan Dua Hati said that NGOs must be ready to become independent from funding donors. Fundraising is considered as an option to become self financing. In the past three years, case of HIV/AIDS in Bali have continued to rise. In 2010, Bali saw 1,002 new cases, in 2011 there were 1,271 new cases, while last year recorded 1,273 new cases. As of November last year, there were 6,971 HIV/AIDS patients in Bali, mostly in Denpasar (41 percent), Buleleng (18 percent) and Badung (14 percent).

source : bali daily