The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and malaria (Global Fund) has notified Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi that it will reduce funding to South Africa by R1.4-billion.
Global Fund said it would be reducing allocations for the seventh grant cycle from R8.5-billion to about R7.1-billion, a 16% reduction. Of this, 55% would be allocated to the National Department of Health and the rest to non-profit organisations such as the Networking HIV & AIDS Community of Southern Africa, Beyond Zero, and the AIDS Foundation of South Africa.
The fund informed recipient countries in May that it would be revising over 200 grants amidst funding shortfalls.
Global Fund was established in 2002 and provides funding for HIV, TB and malaria programmes in over 100 countries. According to its 2024 results report, 72% of its funding from 2021 to 2024 went to sub-Saharan Africa.
Other African countries also received notification of funding cuts. Mozambique’s allocation decreased by 12%, Malawi’s by 8% and Zimbabwe by 11%.
The shortfall in funding is due to Global Fund not having received money pledged by national governments. Over US$4 billion of the shortfall is due to the United States not fulfilling its pledge.
We reported last month how Mozambique’s health system has crumbled amidst USAID funding cuts.
In South Africa, funding cuts from PEPFAR earlier this year have led to clinics closing down, health staff getting retrenched, and people struggling to access HIV medication.
“As you know, the external financing landscape for global health programs is going through significant changes, with substantial impact on lifesaving services for the fight against the three diseases and health and community systems,” the Global Fund said in its letter to South African representatives.
The letter continued that while the Global Fund has “received some significant donor payments in recent days”, prospects to give the full grant cycle 7 (GC7) pledges “remain highly uncertain” and still face a risk of funding shortfalls.
“This is a difficult and unavoidable decision, which may require your country to reconsider how best to use the remaining GC7 grant amounts together with domestic resources and other sources of funds to keep saving lives,” the Global Fund said.
Foster Mohale, Department of Health spokesperson, said that the funding cut did not come as a surprise. Mohale said the department is “working with the provinces” to ensure that “service delivery” is not disrupted, and to apply measures to ensure “efficient use of limited resources”.
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