|
According to official reports by Ethiopia's Federal Ministry of Health, in 2005 the number of people living with HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia is 1.7 million, with a national adult prevalence rate of 4.7%. The official figure of children orphaned by AIDS stands at 679.000, while the number of people in need of treatment is estimated at 286,000 and steadily climbing. The national prevalence rate continues to grow. While the urban epidemic has peaked in 1995 and then plateaued at high prevalence rates, in rural areas, the disease continues to spread. The main mode of transmission is heterosexual sex; it accounts for 87% of all infections. Mother to child transmission is about 10%.
Poverty, high rate of unemployment, wide-spread commercial sex work, gender disparity, illiteracy, population movements, rural–urban migration, harmful cultural and traditional practices, stigma and discrimination are the underlying factors influencing the spread of the epidemic in Ethiopia.
Italian Contribution Towards Ethiopia's Fight Against HIV/AIDS
Global Fund: Ethiopia is among the countries who receive aid from the Global Fund to fight HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and Tuberculosis. Thus far, Ethiopia has received 27 million USD for actions against Tuberculosis, 215 million USD for Malaria, and 541 million USD for HIV/AIDS, up to 2009. Out of those large allocations, 124 million USD are currently utilized in the country in the diseases control programmes.
To date Italy has contributed 433 million USD to the Fund. 9.1% of the money currently available worldwide through the Global Fund is provided by the Italian contribution: currently about 7 million USD in Ethiopia, funding the fight against AIDS.
Commission on HIV/AIDS and Governance in Africa (CHGA): is a UN system wide initiative established in order to assess the complex and long term implications of HIV/AIDS on government capacity and economic development in Africa. The initiative also aims at making African Governments and their citizens aware of the nature of the HIV threat. Italy has contributed about 250, 000 USD towards this project.
Italy-UNAIDS Cooperation: in June 2004 the Italian Development Cooperation and UNAIDS signed an agreement in order to mobilize and support broad-based and multi-sectoral responses against the HIV/AIDS epidemic in four African countries - Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Mozambique, and Uganda. The agreement is being implemented in Ethiopia with a common and coordinated effort in Monitoring and Evaluation and Partnership development.
WHO/Italian Initiative on HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa: launched in 2001, as a technical partnership between the Italian Development Cooperation and the World Health Organization, this project aims to address priority gaps in the response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic and to contribute to the overall purpose of controlling and reducing the impact of the disease in ten Sub-Saharan countries.
For the second phase of the Initiative, starting in October 2005, 607,000 USD is allocated to Ethiopia. The country programme will be implemented through the technical cooperation between the Ethiopian Health and HIV/AIDS Authorities, WHO and Italian Cooperation. The whole WHO/Italian Initiative on HIV/AIDS in Africa benefits of an Italian contribution of 12 million Euro from 2001 to date. The funds are committed to improve the quality of healthcare and to maximize the use of other internationally provided resources in scaling up HIV/AIDS prevention and care.
Collaboration Italy – ILO: A collaboration between Italy and International Labor Organization (ILO) to fight HIV/AIDS is active in Ethiopia, Uganda, and Zambia. In this framework, a 3 year project focuses on prevention of HIV/AIDS and mitigation of the epidemics impact in the world of work, specifically in rural cooperatives and transport workers. The project, which is being implemented by ILO and the Ethiopian Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, benefits from an Italian financing of 200,000 Euros.
Commitment in Pediatric AIDS care and treatment: in the framework of the Italian Contribution to the HSDP a project is being realized in the specific field of Pediatric AIDS care and treatment: Italy provides support, focused on human resources and technical collaboration, in a partnership with the MoH and the Missionaries of Charity Centre for HIV + Children in Addis Ababa.
Mainstreaming of the fight against HIV/AIDS in different sectors: within its Programmes on Education and on Rural Development (ESDP and ABRDP), the Italian Cooperation is undertaking different initiatives of analysis, information, education, social mobilization about HIV/AIDS issues in specific contexts.
Experts and Consultants: The Italian Development Cooperation Office in Ethiopia is staffed by HIV/AIDS experts to follow up and advice on related policy issues in the country.
For further information you may be interested in visiting the following links:
|
