PlusNews examines potential cuts in U.S. HIV funding to Ethiopia

PlusNews discusses potential cuts in U.S. funding for HIV-related activities in Ethiopia and the role of greater in-country funding for health. In 2013, "Ethiopia will experience a 79 percent reduction in U.S. HIV financing from PEPFAR," according to a blog post written last year by Amanda Glassman, director of global health policy and senior fellow at the Center for Global Development, the news service notes. While "Ethiopian government officials ... were concerned about the funding cuts, they had been expecting them," PlusNews writes. 

Kesetebirhan Admassu, the new minister of health in Ethiopia, said, "Most of the cuts are going to be around softer programmatic activities that can be taken care of by mobilizing internal resources as well as using some innovative approaches like the health development army and so on," the news service notes. According to an article in the Capital, a local paper in Ethiopia, Dennis Weller, the director of USAID in Ethiopia, discussed the role of increased support from the Ethiopian government, saying, "[T]he real focus now is transition to much more country ownership and looking at the sustainability of these investments. So things like health financing and community health insurance will be important," PlusNews writes. According to Admassu, the Ethiopian government has been playing a greater role in health in recent years, PlusNews reports, adding that he said, "If you look at the trend of government contribution, it is growing year by year" (1/9).