Antenas, elementos pasivos y cableado RF

Continued expansion of access and quality of education In Namibia has been increasingly hindered by financial constraints on the sector and government as a whole. Namibian expenditure on education is high by international standards at 9.4% of GNP and 21.3% of the government budget. This means that potential for greater diversion of resources from general government revenue is likely to be

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Chapter 5: Driving the HIV/AIDS response 80 limited. In addition, the very high proportion of education expenditure on personnel limits flexibility to reallocate within education budgets to respond to new needs and non-personnel line items.

Finances for HIV/AIDS and other special programmes have often not been as constrained as for other education activities due to availability of donor assistance. However, as indicated in this assessment, greater resources are needed to ensure that HIV/AIDS is mainstreamed adequately across education components, as well as achieve adequate coverage and intensity of programmes.

There are several strong arguments for greater prioritisation of HIV/AIDS activities in resource allocation at all levels.

• HIV/AIDS creates the single greatest inefficiency in the education system. Premature death of learners and employees due to HIV/AIDS at current infection rates probably will amount to loss of over a quarter of the national investment in education. Actively preventing and managing HIV/AIDS impacts is in itself an investment.

• HIV/AIDS is an enduring problem that will lead to various other costs to the system beyond this decade and investment in impact management now will generate long term benefits.

• The education sector has a unique role to play in the national HIV/AIDS response. It is Namibia’s largest employer and thus a core of the national response to impacts in the workplace. In addition, it has the nation’s most extensive organizational network, professional capacity to combat HIV/AIDS and unique, daily contact with millions of at risk and vulnerable children.

• HIV/AIDS will reduce the community resources and capacity for education particularly in the most disadvantaged communities, thus undermining key equity objectives of the sector.

• As illustrated in this assessment, many key responses to HIV/AIDS are likely to be “affordable” if they are given appropriate priority over time. Some costs particularly related to management of staff impacts, may become significant additional demands on budgets. However, costs of impacts and responses are unlikely to be extremely large as a proportion of education expenditure and will climb gradually. They should thus be amenable to gradual re-prioritisation of programmes and expenditure within and across sectors.

Recommendations – resource allocation

Improved levels of funding of HIV/AIDS responses are required at all levels. The goal should be to incorporate most HIV/AIDS-related activities into core budgets and functions in the longer term. However, initial extra investment is likely to be necessary to develop and disseminate knowledge, develop capacity and devise systems to respond to HIV/AIDS. Recommendations on resource allocation to deal with fiscal constraints and maximize effectiveness include the following.

• Develop a specific resource mobilisation strategy to ensure adequate funding for HIV/AIDS

activities. This should consider not only short term funding requirements, but also ways to gradually increase availability of resources over time to cope with rising HIV/AIDS related needs.

• Develop strategy to create budgetary space to cover key HIV/AIDS related costs over the next decade. The major source of potential space has to be assumed to be closer management of

personnel related costs in the absence of increasing government revenue. In partnership with OPM, PSC, Finance and unions, consider ways to incrementally to ensure there are sufficient finances to cover major system costs such as increasing medical aid contributions, relief teacher systems and posts for guidance and counselling teachers.88

• Prioritize and reallocate existing capacity away from less urgent matters or less cost effective programmes in the sector. Planners and political leadership need to seriously consider this.

Continued spending on inefficient, less urgent or inequitable uses is now more difficult to

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Options may for example, include reaching agreement with unions and other sectors to gradually divert a certain component of potential wage increases towards building contingency funds to deal with some of the costs related to managing impacts on employees.

Chapter 5: Driving the HIV/AIDS response 81 defend if it means that the large impacts HIV/AIDS impacts on system performance are not addressed.

• Consider a general requirement that all education components down to school level should allocate a certain percentage of their budgets to a HIV/AIDS vote linked to specific activities

and outputs.89 This could encourage mainstreaming of HIV/AIDS in activities and budgets and relieve pressure for allocation of extra resources. Encourage pooling of budgets for

combined activities across units and institution where this will help to increase viability of

responses, reduce duplication and maximize synergy.

• Consider mobilizing funding under new provisions for a fund under the new Education Act for particular needs such as OVC support. Support from donor or general government

revenue for a well motivated use of funds may be possible.

• Compete boldly for donor or other HIV/AIDS programme funds to support establishment of

new programmes, systems and capacity. The expanded response proposed for education is a

critical part of the national strategy to respond to workplace, prevention and vulnerable children needs. Consider developing applications to the Global Fund on HIV/AIDS to support education sector initiatives on prevention and impact mitigation. However it will also be important to avoid over-reliance on donors. Donor funding is likely to be too limited for coverage of sufficient numbers of schools and functions. HIV/AIDS activities have to become core functions for the sector. Sustainability may be compromised if they cannot rely on government funding in the longer term.

• Increase priority of funding of programmes and functions that are already seen as important and are also relevant to the HIV/AIDS response. Examples include management development, cluster

initiatives, and strengthening human resource management capacity and systems.

• Manage programme resource allocation to ensure maximum benefits from available resources.

• Prioritise funding of posts and other basic requirements at all levels to drive the sector’s response. Without core capacity and inputs such as transport success will be limited.

• Prioritise spending on HIV/AIDS activities that can provide good indications of cost effectiveness and efficiency in producing the greatest effect per dollar spent when compared to

other options. This may require consideration of supporting NGO or other partners rather than direct provision of services by the Ministries themselves.

• Target resources at the most vulnerable communities, learners, schools and aspects of education. These include focus on rural and other disadvantaged communities and schools,

key vulnerable functions and particular vulnerabilities of the girl child and female educators. Targeting is likely to be particularly important for programmes such as nutritional support and subsidies to compensate for lower levy income, for example.

• Focus on interventions and resources with “multiplier effects”. Priority needs are likely to

include greater focus on system development to use existing resources more effectively, rather than over-emphasis on capacity development and training. In the Namibian context, priorities are likely to include: more efficient communication and administrative systems; development of good guidelines and tools for new programme priorities that allow decentralised activity; improved transport related systems to facilitate networking and access to key partners such as social services; and systems and activities to disseminate examples of best practice.

• Consider innovative approaches such as an incentive fund to stimulate and support planning

and implementation of HIV/AIDS activities by individual regions, clusters or schools.

• Closely monitor and where necessary review fee and levy systems that may undermine

effectiveness of programmes in responding to the needs of the most vulnerable. Relevant programmes include normal schooling, ECD and NAMCOL. Greater allocation of resources to address impacts of fees and levies on education access may be more important than many other HIV/AIDS specific responses.

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This is consistent with the Ministries current emphasis on encouraging all Divisions and components to integrate HIV/AIDS into their plans.