Government response and changing tactics

Government response

Many national governments have complex capacity needs to coordinate across government departments in the response, as well as involving the private sector, civil society and other non-governmental organisations. Moreover, the politically-charged nature of policy responses, as the need to respond immediately and other political agendas will impact on decisions and planning. Government cycles are often unsuitable to deal with the timeframe of long-wave shocks, such as HIV and AIDS. Planning systems are not set up to think beyond five-year plans and newly elected governments may result in policy changes. Moreover, aid architecture also contributes to the short-term perspective of policy responses. While this is related to the politics of institutions, funding is often goal focused with specific timeframes for spending. So how can the short-term nature of institutions and aid-architecture cope with the long-term effects of HIV and AIDS?

Changing tactics

The AIDS epidemic has highlighted the need to plan for the longer term and think beyond five-year plans, despite many uncertainties. There is a need make links between different sectors. Moreover, there needs to be support for sectors, building facilities for the long term and investment in higher education to provide human capacity. The international community, national governments and researchers and policy makers need to make these links. We need to learn how to respond and manage more effectively. And we need to move from ideas to action and look to local experiences and implementation, moving rapidly from these discussions, from understanding to impact.