The reduction in the Belgian development cooperation budget will not come at the expense of funds for the fight against HIV/AIDS, said Belgian Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot (Les Engagés) on Tuesday during a visit to institutions and hospitals in the Congolese capital, Kinshasa.
"International aid is under pressure due to significant budget cuts. The United States has set an example, making other countries feel freer to reduce their development aid budgets, including Belgium, by 25%," Prévot said at Kabinda Hospital in Kinshasa.
Together with the Congolese National Institute for Biomedical Research (INRB), which collaborates with the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, this hospital is a reference centre for infectious diseases, involved in the surveillance and treatment of epidemics such as MPOX or sleeping sickness.
Patients often arrive with multiple conditions, particularly those infected with HIV, a disease that affects nearly half a million people in the country. Their immune deficiencies put them at greater risk of developing MPOX and make them less responsive to vaccines.
'A reliable partner'
According to the INRB, sleeping sickness, a parasitic infection transmitted by the tsetse fly, could be eradicated by 2030. "But then resources must be made available to take the final steps. Belgium will remain a reliable partner in this," Prévot assured.
The specialists on site emphasised the importance of government funding for diseases that are in the process of being eradicated and in which private actors are reluctant to invest.
Belgium has set aside €2 million for the Mbote-HIVAX project (vaccination campaign in Kinshasa, research into the effectiveness of the Mpox vaccine in people with HIV, etc.), as well as €14.5 million for the IMT-INRB partnership (2022-2026) and €9 million for the project to combat sleeping sickness.
Besides the HIV programs, the cuts to Belgian development cooperation will also not affect humanitarian aid, another component of this week's ministerial visit to four countries in Central and East Africa.
