The Zimbabwean government on Thursday signed a 40 million U.S. dollars agreement with multiple bilateral donors and six United Nations Agencies to support the national AIDS response in the country over the next three years.

Zimbabwe's National AIDS Council (NAC) executive director Tapiwa Magure signed the agreement with the bilateral funders that include Britain, Sweden, Ireland and Norway.

Health and Child Welfare Minister David Parirenyatwa, and British Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Andrew Pocock, witnessed the signing ceremony.

Speaking before the signing, Parirenyatwa said the funds would help fill in gaps in the ministry's fight against HIV and AIDS, particularly bringing about real change in behavior. He assured the donors that the funds would be put to good and transparent use and that a robust system of managing the programme would be developed to make it self-sustaining.

In addition to raising the number of people on the Antiretroviral program from 52,000 to 72,000, the funds would be used to strengthen the National Blood Transfusion Services' capacity to screen donated blood for HIV.

The agreement will see the bilateral donors and UN Agencies help the Zimbabwean government rapidly expand its programs to provide services for combating HIV and AIDS through the Expanded Support Program for HIV and AIDS Prevention, Care and Treatment ( ESP).

This will result in a significant increase in funding to complement existing financial resources towards fighting the pandemic, including the AIDS Levy and from other donors such as the U.S. and the European Union.

While Britain, Sweden, Ireland and Norway will provide the initial funding for the ESP, other donors are expected to join in the near future while the founders might increase their commitments should the program work well.

Meanwhile, UN Agencies that will provide technical support for implementation of ESP include the UNAIDS, UNICEF, UNFPA, WHO, the UNDP with the International Organization for Migration forming part of the partnership.

Zimbabwe is the only country in the Southern African region to register a decline in HIV/AIDS prevalence from 31 percent in 2000, to 20.1 in 2005 and 18.1 percent in 2006, owing to concerted efforts by the government to prevent new infections through awareness campaigns.

Although there has been a decline, about 3.000 people continue to die from AIDS related illnesses each week.

Source: Xinhua