The Government of Lesotho has signed the two-year Global Fund Round 8 HIV and AIDS grant agreement worth US Dollars 47,201,007 on November 4, 2009. The Minister of Finance and Development Planning (MOFDP) Dr. Timothy Thahane signed the agreement on behalf of the Government of Lesotho.

The implementation of the grant will start immediately after disbursement of the funds. The main implementer of this grant will be Ministry of Health and Social Welfare which will implement 96 percent of all grant activities through various health departments. Other implementers are National AIDS Commission (NAC), Lesotho Mounted Police Services, Lesotho Correctional Services, and Ministry of Gender, youths and Sports Recreation.

The Ministry of Finance and Development Planning through Global Fund Coordinating Unit will be the Principal Recipient (PR) that coordinate and manage the disbursement of the fund.

The grant monies will be used mainly for HIV and AIDS and Health Strengthening Systems (HSS). In HSS the money will assist with Human Resource for hospitals and academic institutions that provide health education, service delivery, procurement and supply management of health products as well as information system and operational research.

In HIV and AIDS, the grant will assist on prevention activities mainly support the roll out of national Behaviour Change Communication (BCC) strategy, male circumcision, testing and counseling, sexual and reproductive health as well as STI diagnosis and treatment.

In treatment aspect, the activities will focus on prophylaxis and treatment for opportunistic infections and roll out of ARV treatment and monitoring of patients and also provide care and support for the chronically ill. The fund will further address issues of stigma reduction and reduce negative social and economic impacts of HIV and AIDS on individuals, families and communities. It will further scale-up HIV related policies and programmes in both public and private sector workplaces.

The objectives of the Round 8 HIV grant programs are to reduce the incidence of new infections in both the general and specific populations, to increase universal access to HIV counseling and testing services, to strengthen comprehensive HIV chronic care services and ART for People Living with HIV, reduce its impact and scale-up HIV related policies at work places.

The Round 8 HIV/AIDS grant entitled “Stepping up universal access: a multi sectoral partnership response to HIV and AIDS at community level.”  The overall goal of this grant is to reduce HIV and AIDS related morbidity and mortality.

The beneficiaries of this grant are drawn from broad spectrum of the society as the grant projects primarily target men and women in concurrent and multiple relationships, the biggest driver of the epidemic in Lesotho. Other targeted are youth, socially disadvantaged groups such as men who have sex with men (MSM), commercial sex workers (CSW), herdboys, prison inmates and the disabled as well as women and girls and those living in rural and hard-to-reach areas. Other beneficiaries of this grant are employees and employers, private , government and civil society sectors.