Bulawayo, (New Ziana) – Zimbabwe should increasingly look inward to finance its HIV and AIDS response as traditional international donors continue to scale back support, the National AIDS Council (NAC) has said.
NAC chief executive officer, Bernard Madzima, said this at a three-day Zimbabwe Uniformed Forces Health Services conference in Bulawayo.
The conference, held under the theme, “Integrated Health Futures, Addressing HIV,Non Communicable Diseases and Comorbidities In A Changing World” is being attended by uniformed forces from Angola, Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique,Tanzania and Namibia.
Institutions of higher learning, medical equipment suppliers and other healthcare stakeholders are also taking part.
Madzima highlighted the changing global health financing landscape that required the country to increasingly rely on local resources, particularly the AIDS levy and increased government investment, to sustain gains made in the fight against HIV.
“We are aware that the global funding landscape for health in general, and HIV in particular, has shifted.
“Traditional donors have pulled out or are pulling out, and this then calls for sustainable roadmaps which are looking inwards, and Zimbabwe has to start doing that, otherwise the targets for 2030 will not be met,” he said.
Madzima said the forthcoming National HIV and AIDS Strategic Plan V (2026-2030) places greater emphasis on increased domestic funding to ensure continuity of prevention, treatment and care programmes.
“The strategic plan for the period 2026 to 2030 advocates for increased domestic funding through the AIDS levy and the government’s other obligations to health,” he said.
He said the new strategy, which has been finalised and is awaiting official launch, was aligned to the National Development Strategy 2 (NDS2) and the National Health Strategy, which both seek to improve health outcomes and support the country’s aspiration of attaining an upper-middle-income economy status by 2030.
Madzima said the strategy had been developed through extensive consultations involving key stakeholders, including the Zimbabwe Uniformed Forces, and was informed by the country’s progress and remaining challenges in the HIV response.
“It is important to note that we are developing this strategy against the backdrop of having achieved the 2025 targets of 95-95-95,” he said.
Zimbabwe has achieved the global UNAIDS benchmark where 95 percent of people living with HIV know their status, 95 percent of those diagnosed are on anti-retroviral therapy, and 95 percent of those on treatment have achieved viral suppression.
Despite the milestone, Madzima said significant gaps remained, particularly in preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV and improving paediatric treatment coverage.
“The strategy takes note that there are critical gaps, especially in children. Mother-to-child transmission is still above the target, while paediatric treatment coverage remains low,” he said.
Madzima also said the strategy would prioritise interventions targeting key populations, including sex workers, men who have sex with men, migrant populations and adolescent girls, as well as intensify programmes in the country’s 15 high HIV burden districts.
He added that the plan also incorporates new HIV prevention technologies, including the rollout of long-acting injectable prevention medicines such as lenacapavir, while strengthening efforts to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV, hepatitis B and syphilis by 2030.
“The strategy is result-oriented and is aimed at ending AIDS by 2030 using an evidence-based approach that prioritises provinces and districts with high HIV incidence,” he said.
Madzima indicated that health systems, community leadership and multi-sectoral collaboration would underpin implementation of the strategy.
“We believe that if this strategy is fully implemented, Zimbabwe will achieve its 2030 targets of zero new HIV infections, zero AIDS-related deaths and zero stigma,” he said.
New Ziana
