IN the Country Operational Plan for the year 2022 (COP22), Zimbabwe’s health civil society organisations under the Advocacy Core Team (ACT) banner are embedding new health advocacy points which now qualify for funding by the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).
By Staff Reporter
Health civil societies came up with health priorities they felt left out in the previous funding cycles by PEPFAR, some of which after relaxation of range of priorities, now qualify.
Speaking to this publication on the sidelines of the COP22 CSO priorities setting meeting last Friday, co-chairing the COP22 planning committee, Dr Donald Tobaiwa explained that this was a consultative process where CSOs shape priorities which can be considered in this year’s funding cycle.
This is a civil society organisations consultation that focuses on the country’s operational plan for PEPFAR which is cop 22. Civil society organisations come in and shape the priorities that then facilitate the coming up of the operational plan for PEPFAR for the next funding cycle which start on the first of October ending on September 31, 2023. So, this is a demonstration that PEPFAR is now inclusive in terms of its planning process, in terms of implementation as well as in terms of its strategies,” he said.
He explained that they want interventions that help Zimbabwe end the AIDS pandemic by 2030. Some of these interventions such as social determinants of health like mental health, nutrition, psychosocial support were not included in the previous process.
“Some items were included but it is the how part that needs to be tweaked. Priorities were looking at the how part. Some are new things that because of the evolving dynamics, emerging epidemiological context, we also need to include other things like for instance, people that are aging with HIV, we have people that are living with Advanced HIV that now need to go back to the CD4, you know that CD4 of less than 200, you then need to speak to how do we treat them.”
All those conversations were not in the previous COP process. People who inject drugs, that conversation was there but PEPFAR was not supporting, we would continue to push, in the planning letter this time it would push that. There are other new conversations like cryptococcal meningitis. It wasn’t in the space but if we are looking at evidence, we need to focus on that area without even mincing our words.
“Mental health, we talked about it in the previous space but it wasn’t fully funded. We need that to be fully funded. It is a shift to ensure that the social determinants are fully focused on as we head towards the last mile. The localisation agenda is one big conversation that we need to have because international NGOs they may come in the space around local organisations but once the money isn’t there they are gone.
