Matthew Quaife

In the ABBA song this session was titled after, the band reflect on “all the things I could do, if I had a little money”. This session looked at what this money can do, with presentations spanning reductions in overseas development assistance (ODA), private-sector funding, and domestic co-financing.

John Stover started us off, using the GOALS model to estimate the cost-effectiveness of a range of interventions, and showed that the most cost-effective interventions only need 15% of total resources but are currently only funded at 70% of need. Annie Haakenstad showed that sub-Saharan Africa has very little space for additional co-financing programmes, but much more space for domestic financing exists in Eastern and Central Europe. Taavi Frank forecasted the cost of financing ART in SSA, with the most pessimistic scenario modelled estimating the number of PLHIV would triple due to reductions in funding. Daniel Muigai Mwaura described how a catalytic funding model kicked off a workplace testing and condom promotion programme, which then became increasingly co-funded by the employer. Finally, Andrea Salas Ortiz described how Mexico, working on ways to optimise domestic funding, reviewed NGO projects for cost-effectiveness, targeting, and technical efficiency, leading to more efficient budget allocations.

This session presented some fascinating applications of the points raised at the high-profile funding panel that we reported on yesterday. This session touched on reductions in ODA spending and the implications of that, including how existing resources could be used more efficiently; the potential for private financing of the HIV response; and the extent to which there is space for domestic resources to be increased (or where there is none…) across the globe.