SADC Health Ministers Urge Local Funding for HIV and TB Programs

By Regina Pasipanodya

The Southern African Development Committee (SADC) Member States have been urged to mobilise alternative funding for critical health programs through public-private partnerships and domestic resource mobilisation amid the donor funding crisis after USAID pulled out of WHO earlier this year.

United States President Donald Trump recently withdrew funding from the World Health Organization and freeze the US Agency for International Development (USAID) pending a review by the US State Department.

This includes funds for the President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar). The decisions have triggered alarm in the global health sector with programs like that of HIV, TB and malaria prevention, treatment and control being the most affected.

However, through a report from a virtual SADC Extraordinary meeting which was held from 20 to 21 February 2025, Minister of Health and Child Care, Honourable Dr. Douglas Mombeshora presented that the meeting addressed critical health challenges facing the SADC region and adopted several key decisions to strengthen collective responses to these challenges.

SADC member states therefore endorsed:

(i) the SADC TB Strategic Plan.

(ii) the expansion of the E8 Malaria Elimination Initiative to all 16 SADC Member States under the auspices of SADC.

iii. a project to accelerate the implementation and investment into the SADC Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) Strategy

(iv) the feasibility study on the establishment of a Southern Africa Health Organisation; and

(v) the establishment of the SADC Pooled Procurement Services (SPPS) as an Autonomous Special Purpose Vehicle under the principle of subsidiarity.

In addition, Member States were urged to share information on disease outbreaks timeously to effectively address cross-border transmission like the ongoing health emergencies in the SADC region, such as the Mpox Outbreak and Marburg Virus Disease.