Three Cents A Day is Not Enough: Resourcing HIV-related Harm Reduction on a Global Basis

People who inject drugs should benefit from the large increases in the global resources available for HIV. However, it is difficult to measure how much of global HIV spending actually goes into harm reduction. Although harm reduction is relatively invisible in national and international budgets, it is possible to calculate a plausible estimate of HIV-related harm reduction expenditure in low and middle income countries between 2007 and 2009. These results demonstrate the degree to which the international community is failing to address the issue of HIV among injecting drug using populations.

Despite the difficulties in identifying harm reduction expenditure, and of obtaining accurate estimates, there is no doubt that the overall volume of spending on HIV-related harm reduction is small.