THE Global Fund has approved a US$44-million grant for Jamaica to continue its AIDS programmes over the next five years, Prime Minister Bruce Golding announced yesterday.

But Golding, who made the disclosure during his adddress to the World AIDS Day Leadership Breakfast at the Terra Nova All-Suites Hotel in Kingston, said some $200 million is needed for the current national strategic plan for AIDS.

As such, he said the country would have to depend on international donors and the private sector to pick up the shortfall.

According to Golding, the country is faced with a situation of determining “priorities within priorities”.

“It naturally gives me concern because as important as the fight against HIV is, it joins a list of priorities and, therefore, when you are allocating resources, there are some tough decisions that have to be made,” he said.

“Do you divert funds to deal with this struggle for AIDS, but you have a crime problem which needs resources and an education system, which if you don’t transform, will have nowhere to go. It’s no longer choosing between priorities, it is now trying to make choices among imperatives,” Golding said.

He added that much effort had been put into the national strategic plan and, therefore, it cannot be allowed to fail. As such, he said the government would have to look at extra budgetary sources of funding both locally and overseas.

Yesterday, Professor Peter Figueroa, chief of Epidemiology and AIDS in the Ministry of Health, told the Observer that the money from the Global Fund is expected to be disbursed by the middle of next year following the completion of some technical aspects of the proposal. He said there were hopes that the country would receive further funding for its HIV programmes from the World Bank and the USAID.