This is the final part of a three-part series. You can read the first part here and the second part here.
Long before the gradual withdrawal of international HIV funding exposed the fragility of Nigeria’s HIV response, Akwa Ibom and Rivers states had enacted laws intended to prevent such a crisis.
The laws recognised that donor assistance would not last forever and envisaged a future in which governors provided political leadership, governments financed programmes from domestic resources, local councils coordinated community interventions, and legal protections encouraged people living with HIV to seek treatment without fear of discrimination.
On paper, the laws offered a blueprint for sustainability. However, a PREMIUM TIMES investigation found little publicly available evidence that several of the statutory mechanisms operated as intended during the period under review, even as donor-supported community services began disappearing in both states.
The findings raise a critical question: if institutions specifically created to sustain the HIV response are not fully functional before donors leave, what happens when external funding eventually disappears?
