Resource Mobilization/ Sustainable Financing
At the core of any national response is the mobilization of financial resources. Zambia has been advocating increased allocation of domestic resources to fund the NASF and encourage development partners to maintain their support for implementation of this strategic framework. The Health Fund is a sustainability measure the Government is putting in place to increase available resources for health, including for HIV.
Funds from the United States Government (USG), a major partner, flow through multiple channels including PEPFAR, CDC and USAID and are managed through a Partnership Framework signed between the Government of Zambia and the USG. Additional resources are also mobilized from other partners including the Global Fund. However, more effort has been put into identifying local funding opportunities at sub-national level from the private sector or from within communities themselves.
Mainstreaming HIV within other key social and development sectors such as health, social protection, education, infrastructure and transport is expected to share the cost of funding more evenly.
International financial assistance has declined steadily over the past several years and this situation is expected to continue, requiring the Government of Zambia to take more and more responsibility for financing the major portion of HIV interventions. A viable sustainable funding strategy, therefore, requires development and implementation. Accordingly, for the next three years, in addition to regular annual audits, value for money audits will be conducted in randomly selected institutions at each level of the national response. The information obtained from these audits will be used to strengthen the financial accountability system at all levels of the response.