Funded by the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the Sustainable Financing Initiative for HIV/AIDS (SFI) aims to increase the sustainability of the HIV response by promoting shared financial responsibility with host country governments. Since 2014, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has implemented SFI in 16 countries and two regional programs, with a budget of nearly $48 million.
The Dominican Republic has the second highest number of people living with HIV (PLHIV) in the Caribbean. In 2020, there were an estimated 70,000 PLHIV among persons ages 15 to 49 years, accounting for 0.9 percent of the population in this age group. The same year, close to 2,000 people were predicted to be newly infected with HIV and 700 to die from an AIDS-related illness.1 The Government of the Dominican Republic plays a major role in financing the national response by fully funding antiretrovirals (ARVs) and other HIV commodities, but more investment is needed from both the public and private sectors to ensure sustainable funding for the HIV response over the long term.
In collaboration with the Government of the Dominican Republic, SFI activities focused on mobilizing domestic resources, strengthening human resources, expanding access to HIV services in the private sector, and providing technical assistance to integrate financing, procurement, and distribution of ARVs through the country’s social health insurance program.
