This title above was the theme of the NACA Director General Prof. John Idoko’s presentation during the opening ceremony of the Zonal/National Consultation Meeting on Ownership and Sustainability on the 13th of February 2012 at Chida Hotel, Utako District of Abuja. It was indeed a defining moment for the National HIV Response as efforts are geared towards innovative resourcing for HIV in Nigeria. The three-day event will bring together Members of the National Executive Council, Legislators, Development Partners, Civil Society, Implementing Partners, Speakers of the House of Assembly, Commissioners of Finance and Health, State Legislators and SACA Executive Secretaries.

The NACA Director General pointed out that donor funding has dropped by 13% and presented the financial gaps that exist in the implementation of the National Strategic Plan 2010 - 2015. He said this dwindling resources is coming at a time when about 70, 000 babies are being born HIV positive annually;  only 415, 000 out of about 1, 500, 000 requiring HIV drugs have access; and only 18% of our population have been tested for HIV. He stated that resources needed include financial, human, goods and services and that it was time for all sectors including communities to embrace ownership of HIV programmes for their sustainability.

Prof John Idoko emphasized the importance of having a strengthened health system for efficient service delivery at the grassroots and an enhanced data collection mechanism to monitor and track progress and to contribute to research.

He tasked the National and State Assemblies to identify with the recommendations of innovative financing mechanisms that would be proposed at the end of the meeting in order to back them up with enabling laws. The way forward according to the Director General is to strengthen the health systems, integrate more services, aggressively scale up HIV prevention programmes and strengthen the monitoring and evaluation system.

While he reminded the politicians present that the most important dividend of democracy may be to keep their communities free of HIV, he ended his presentation with this thought provoking question “Nigeria is poor but Nigeria is rich, how do we look inwards to mobilize more resources for HIV?”