IFGH 2010: What happens when the donors withdraw? Community Based Organisations and the World Bank in Zambia

Aims: This study assessed the impact of the ending of the World Bank’s Community Response to HIV/AIDS (CRAIDS) programme in Zambia, 2003-2008.

Methods: In-depth interviews (n=34) with representatives of community based organisations (CBOs) and district stakeholders in a rural district in Zambia in March and May 2010. Data were thematically coded and analysed.

Results:  All CRAIDS-supported CBOs were still functioning, although cessation of funding had resulted in a reduction in support and schooling for orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs), and less care and nutritional support to people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). No other funding sources currently exist and CBOs are functioning solely on income generating activities (IGAs), which are not generating enough to maintain much needed service levels.

Implications:  Findings show limited sustainability and capacity of communities to provide HIV and AIDS services once donors withdraw, at a time when global funding for HIV is flatlining. Much of the bedrock of CBO-delivered programmes to OVCs and PLWHA has been eroded by the change in donor fashions. Support services to PLWHA and their families, delivered by CBOs based within their own communities, are an essential resource that is hidden from and being neglected by national decision makers and donors.

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