Mozambique 'must make better use of Aids funds'
08/07/2008
Mozambique has been urged to make greater use of the limited financial sponsorship members of the international community have pledged.
Despite having one of the world's highest HIV prevalence rates - about 16 per cent of the adult population - just one third of Mozambicans in need of antiretroviral drugs presently receives them.
Attributing that situation to a lack of financial sponsorship from foreign donors, Mauricio Cysne, UNAids representative in Mozambique, told the country's AIM news agency that efforts to attain their Millennium Development Goals were at risk.
"The partners of UNAids did not grant the money needed at world level to respond to the challenges of prevention and treatment," he said, noting that barely half of the $19 billion (£9.6 billion) needed to fund Mozambique's Aids battle was secured last year.
He conceded, however, that officials within the impoverished country must also do more to ensure all financial sponsorship is distributed as effectively as possible.
"Sustainability of resources allocated to Mozambique to respond to the HIV/Aids pandemic is the challenge that the country is currently facing," he explained. "In the long term, the challenge is to increase these resources by the country's own means."
Mozambique was still recovering from the effects of 16 years of civil war when back-to-back floods in 2000 and 2001 destroyed much of its infrastructure - severely impeding the provision of healthcare services.
Last month, the country approved construction of a Brazilian-funded pharmaceutical plant that will manufacture drugs for people suffering from Aids and malaria.
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