Zimbabwe Needs US$10 Million To Procure Condoms
Zimbabwe faces a significant funding shortfall for its national condom programme, needing to raise over US$10 million to ensure adequate supplies in 2025 and 2026.
The country currently has three main condom distribution channels:
- Public sector: Free condoms provided through government health facilities.
- Social sector: Condoms sold at subsidized prices.
- Commercial sector: Condoms sold at full market prices.
The majority of Zimbabweans who use condoms obtain them from the free public sector program.
This public condom programme has been primarily funded by two major donors – the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the Global Fund.
However, PEPFAR and the Global Fund have recently announced they will be withdrawing funding for Zimbabwe’s public condom programme in 2026. This will create a significant funding gap.
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According to Anna Machiya, the Ministry of Health’s national coordinator for STI prevention and condom distribution, Zimbabwe needs to raise nearly $1.8 million to cover the funding shortfall for female condoms in 2025, and an additional $9.4 million for both male and female condoms in 2026. She said (via The Herald):
The Global Fund committed US$3.3 million towards condom procurement in 2024 and PEPFAR funds that have been committed to procure male and female condoms including lubricants amount to US$7.1 million.
For 2025, we have US$1.96 million committed from Global Fund and about US$2.15 million committed from PEPFAR so we have a funding gap of US$1.8 million for female condoms.
In 2026, there is no committed funding for both male and female condoms so we require US$9.4 million.
Machiya said the funding gap would need to be funded from Treasury as well as the National Aids Trust Fund (Aids Levy). She said:
We started some advocacy sometime back around increasing domestic funding and removal of VAT and duty for commercial sector condoms to create an environment where we have more commercial sector players coming into the condom market with cheaper brands of condoms.
This will relieve the burden on free public condom distribution as people may migrate to use those other condom brands that will be available on the market.
These are issues that we are pursuing as a Ministry and as a programme.
According to data from the Ministry of Health and Child Care, public-sector male condom distribution increased by over 6 million for 2023 as compared to 2022.
More: Pindula News
