FROM DONOR-DEPENDENDENCE TO GOVERNMENT-GUIDANCE: A PREREQUISITE TO "LET COMMUNITIES LEAD" THE HIV RESPONSE
Figure 1 – NSHIP seven strategies. Source: Powerpoint presentation titled “NASCP Government-to-Government funding opportunity: 5-year overview of NSHIP”, 2023 Today is World AIDS day and as one of those persons living ‘off’ HIV (I currently work and get paid within the HIV programme space), it isn’t out of place to join Persons Living ‘with’ HIV (PLHIV) within Africa’s largest economy in being mindful of today and the near future by resonating with this year’s theme – “ Let communities lead” . Thankfully, we are no longer in the epidemic mode of HIV. But, like their heroic counterparts conquering the virus across the rest of the world, a PLHIV in Nigeria is likely to be more interested in tangible and sustainable social protection steps in which he/she is involved in its conceptualization, implementation, regulation, and monitoring, than the fanfare and formal commemorative events that greet the day. This is not to discountenance the important public awareness on evergreen preven