A new funding arrangement which appears to short-change the peer support organisation most focused on the gay and bi men at the heart of the HIV infection statistics is merely a one-off starter arrangement to enable future funding, according to the Ministry of Health. Support organisations Body Positive, Positive Women and INA (Maori, Indigenous and South Pacific) HIV/AIDS Foundation have each been provided with $150,000 to assist with provision of services to people living with HIV and AIDS for the 2011 calendar year. 17% of those known to be living in New Zealand with the virus are believed to be women, a combined total of approximately 14% are Maori or Pacific Islanders and the balance is predominantly men who have sex with men. INA says it has "300 or maybe 370" members of whom "perhaps 100" are people with HIV, the balance being family members, supporters and people with a professional interest. It does not know how many of its members might be gay or bisexual. Body Positive is by far the largest of the three organisations with a membership of "500 people," most of whom are HIV positive gay and bi men. Despite the greater weight of support work shouldered by Body Positive it has been funded with the exact same amount as the smaller organisations. The Ministry says this initial funding, prompted by recommendations made in last year's Miller Report into HIV Services, is to fund one full time worker equivalent for each organisation, plus associated expenses. "As these are new services, there is an absence of reliable performance measures to base funding against," says the Ministry's Manager, Chronic Diseases, Manaia King. He says the payment is intended to cover establishment costs for "implementing systems and procedures for managing Ministry of Health funding. " But the contracts associated with the funding mean "a contractual relationship" now exists between the Ministry and each organisation, "which means that an ongoing dialogue regarding matters such as the quality of the service being delivered, funding levels, and the ongoing relationship will occur regularly," King says. Though its $150,000 will be spread very thinly, "it's a good initial response to the Miller Report," says Body Positive spokesperson Bruce Kilmister, "and we're hopeful that ongoing involvement with the Ministry will reflect the demands made on our services." His optimism is echoed by Marama Pala of INA. "We didn't have any say in the level of funding, but I would hope that in the future Body Positive gets the lion's share of available funding." She says getting this initial Ministry money, the first ever given to HIV organisations other than the NZ AIDS Foundation, is "a huge step for us all. It gets us in the door, it recognises us." As for Positive Women, "The funding will by no means cover all the work the three organisations do so we will all need to continue to find funding from other sources. While the Ministry contract is only for a year, Positive Women are never the less very grateful for it and hope that the MoH will continue to fund all three organisations in the future," says spokesperson Jane Bruning. She hopes a smaller organisation, Absolutely Positively Positive, will also attract Ministry funding in future.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Monday, 14th February 2011 - 11:58pm