BUDGETING FOR HIV/AIDS IN SOUTH AFRICA: AN ANALYSIS OF PROVINCIAL HEALTH BUDGETS

What is the best way to deliver funds to the provinces for HIV/AIDS interventions? This article analyses HIV/AIDS conditional grant (CG) spending and assesses the success of the new funding approach introduced in 2002/3 which channels HIV/AIDS funds to the provinces "via" the equitable share grant. Our research shows that on the whole provinces are improving their spending on the HIV/AIDS conditional grants and provinces are also beginning to allocate substantial funds from their own provincial budgets for HIV/AIDS interventions in the health sector. Special emphasis is placed on ("a") provinces' initiative to allocate additional funds to HIV/AIDS from their own budgets; ("b") variances in "per capita" spending on HIV-positive and AIDS sick populations across provinces; and ("c") whether prioritisation of HIV/AIDS in health budgets might be squeezing out spending on other health services. Copyright 2005 Economic Society of South Africa.