Funded by the United States President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the Sustainable Financing Initiative for HIV/AIDS (SFI) aims to increase 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.
Nigeria has the second largest population of people living with HIV (PLHIV) in the world, with about 1.8 million persons affected in 2020. In 2018, the prevalence of HIV among people ages 15 to 49 was 1.3 percent. In 2020, an estimated 94,648 people were newly infected with HIV and 44,478 died from an AIDS-related illness.1 The Government of Nigeria is committed to increasing domestic resources to reduce the burden of HIV/ AIDS, yet gaps in human resources, overburdened healthcare facilities, and challenges in the supply chain have been obstacles to controlling the epidemic.
In collaboration with the Government of Nigeria and relevant stakeholders, between 2016 and 2020, SFI strengthened the capacity of private sector actors to provide high quality HIV healthcare services and procure essential commodities, provided technical assistance to government officials to enhance financial management, and supported the integration of HIV services into states’ social health insurance schemes. These efforts represent important milestones in improving the sustainability of Nigeria’s HIV response.
