Despite the pressing need for investment in global health priorities, there are significant challenges in securing the necessary political traction and robust, sustained funding from the international community. In addition, international stakeholders are often not aligned, resulting in inefficiencies. These challenges ultimately hinder progress towards global health goals and improving health outcomes, and the wider gains that come from addressing international health priorities.
As part of a wider programme of work seeking to better understand the political economy factors influencing the financing of core international health priorities and identify considerations for better decision-making, Chatham House has developed case studies of recent efforts to secure international financing for two specific global health priorities – HIV and antimicrobial resistance. This case study examines how, in the years leading to the new millennium and beyond, the global response to the HIV epidemic achieved the political traction necessary to mobilize significant international funding for priority interventions over a sustained period.
Global financing for HIV began to surge in 2000, but this surge followed more than a decade of building political traction.
While the mobilization of domestic financing is critical to HIV prevention, treatment and patient care and support, this case study focuses on the international perspective. Global financing for HIV began to surge in 2000, but this surge followed more than a decade of building political traction. This study aims to explain broadly the health and political factors leading to the surge, particularly from the perspective of donors, and to seek insight into how other global health issues might gain a higher profile and similar political and financial support.
An extensive literature review was conducted to identify the most significant events, personalities and opportunities that led to the initial surge of international political and financial commitment. This review was complemented by interviews with key informants, whose specific knowledge of major turning points in the effort to secure international funding for the HIV response were critical in gaining an understanding of the political context and the decision-making processes involved in placing HIV on the global political agenda.
