HRI shares the summary evaluation report of Elton John AIDS Foundation funded grant titled “Increasing Funding for Harm Reduction”.

The evaluation employed contribution analysis- seeking to answer the extent to which the grant has contributed to increased funding or resource allocations for harm reduction, maintained harm reduction as a priority amongst key funding agencies, otherwise influenced donor policies, processes, and funding practices, and increased political support for harm reduction funding in Indonesia, Kenya and South Africa.

The achievements of the grant are presented under three aims as follows

• A powerful message: Stakeholders told us the campaign framing was strong, pragmatic and compelling.
• Strong and original analysis: Aid for the War on Drugs generated substantial media coverage, including this piece in The Guardian, and has been continually used in advocacy efforts. Both this and A World of Harm were praised for the “newness” of their analysis. Both reports gained traction with wider audiences and were considered to fill crucial evidence gaps.
• Building a broad movement for harm reduction funding: The campaign’s framing enabled HRI to work with social justice actors beyond harm reduction circles, such as those advocating for racial justice, rights for women, LGBTQI+ people, sex workers, environmental justice and Indigenous communities.

“What I love about Divest/Invest is that it really connects the dots … it’s this umbrella campaign.” Theshia Naidoo, Drug Policy Alliance

Global Fund: Funding for needle and syringe programmes increasing by over 50%, from Grant Cycle 6 to Grant Cycle 7. Grant Cycle 7 elevated harm reduction to a ‘programme essential’, allowed hepatitis responses to be funded outside HIV co-infection programming and disallowed abstinence-focused programming.

UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs: In 2024, the UN CND included harm reduction in a resolution for the first time. This landmark achievement was the direct result of continued evidence-based advocacy from harm reduction advocates globally, while HRI consistently engaged in the CND process and contributed the process with data and evidence.

PEPFAR: Budget data for 2024/2025 showed that PEPFAR’s harm reduction funding was set to more than double from 2022, reaching USD 17.5m before US funding cuts were announced.

Funders Concerned about AIDS (FCAA) reported a 21% increase in philanthropic funds for HIV programmes for people who use drugs between 2022 and 2023, the highest funding level in five years.

“They’re very strategic in terms of always letting us know what is happening and engaging us … it helps harm reduction preserve its space in these global and regional-level conversations. Without these efforts on the global level, it would be even harder to have harm reduction included in discussions on the country level.” Dasha Ocheret, UNAIDS

Our country partners in Indonesia (Rumah Cemara), South Africa (South African Network of People Who Use Drugs-SANPUD) and Kenya (The Kenya Legal & Ethical Issues Network on HIV and AIDS- KELIN) have pursued different advocacy strategies to build political support for harm reduction funding in their countries. Each has achieved some degree of success, although this support remains fragile in the face of financial constraints and political turnover. Partners in each country described HRI’s evidence-based resources and technical support as critical to progress.

The key achievement headlines in countries include

• Social contracting for harm reduction organisations in two provinces of Indonesia
• Getting harm reduction enshrined in law in Indonesia
• Influencing Global Fund budget allocations of South Africa
• Representation for people who use drugs within the South Africa National AIDS Council
• Increasing provincial funding for proven harm reduction programming in South Africa
• Securing county-level funding commitments for harm reduction in Kenya
• Efforts to include harm reduction in Kenya’s new Social Health Insurance Fund of Kenya
• Making harm reduction organisations more effective at budget advocacy

“There were [HRI] resources [and] previous assessments; there was an assessment around the gap left by the US funding … These were really important documents that we used during the high-level meeting to convince them to think about coming up with a county-level policy.” Timothy Wafula, KELIN