Budget cuts force Aids champion to cut back on staff

THE Treatment Action Campaign, one of South Africa’s best-known civil society organisations, has to cut its staff by 40% in the midst of a funding crisis and is operating on a budget less than half of what it was five years ago — R20-million from R50-million.

This is the TAC’s third restructuring in seven years and comes after one of its major donors, the UK’s Department for International Development, pulled out last year, as did Comic Relief.

Confirmation of the TAC crisis comes just days before World Aids Day, on Tuesday.

“It is an indication of the gradual withdrawal of donor funds for this kind of work,” said Marcus Low, head of policy, communication and research at the TAC.

South Africa’s recent recategorisation as a middle-income country had worked against civil society organisations, but the TAC still had a crucial advocacy role to play, he said.

“Political will is waning in the Aids response, and advocacy organisations can demand it be kept on the agenda.”

The TAC was at the “coalface” of the healthcare system, and could monitor dysfunctionality at public health facilities at local and district level.

“If you take that away, there is no accountability or pressure to fix problems.”

Five years ago, many patients were being sent home without antiretrovirals. TAC members would report this to their local branch (182 in seven provinces) and surveys were published and presented to the government.

“Government now brags about fixing [drug] stock issues, but without pressure and evidence from us, that would not have happened,” Low said.

The organisation was hoping to make next year’s international Aids conference in Durban a “turning point” as it had done in 2000, but, given its financial strain, it faced not attending the conference at all.

The US President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief and the Global Fund to Fight Aids, TB and Malaria together invest $550-million (about R7.8-billion) in South Africa each year.

“The TAC could survive on just $2-million of that,” Low said.

Yogan Pillay, deputy director-general at the Department of Health, said: “The TAC plays a very valuable role, but the truth is, all civil society organisations are now facing serious budget challenges.”

Many had been funded by development partners overseas that were cutting back “because of pressure in their own economies back home” or because “they are choosing to put their money into programmatic activities” rather than advocacy.

He said it was a problem across all sectors, and that the South African National Aids Council had met two weeks ago to look into a “new strategy for resourcing for civil society organisations”.

“We need to find ways for funding as the terrain changes and government takes more responsibility.”