The budget allocated for the project is only moderate when considering the previous budget and the succeeding budget allocation of the South African government for combating HIV/AIDS. On one hand, this could be because the objective was prevention, humane treatment and research that justified the moderate budget allocation for the short-term policy. On the other hand, the allocation of a moderate budget pointed to the limitations of the policy in not considering other factors to the solution such as the construction of more health centres and recruitment and training of health workers.
The exponential benefits from multiple areas of focus could justify the additional cost. The intervention included measurable targets such as the rate of HIV infections over the five-year period and the number of beneficiaries reached by antiretroviral drugs. These measures meet the assessment requirements in determining progress in addressing the increasing rate of HIV/AIDS. The results would show the change in the rate of HIV infection and the extent of people living with HIV reached by the retroviral drugs.
With regard to the comprehensive treatment policy, the problem identified subject to policy determination is the rising rate of HIV infection and the co-occurring or related problems of poor nutrition, low levels of education, limited health care access points, and insufficient or poorly skilled health workers. This represents a broader understanding of the HIV/AIDS problem when compared to the consideration of the problem in the intervention policy. There are a number of policy options for the HIV/AIDS issue.
The government had to consider whether to take responsibility of the problem or let the private sector initiate solutions (Purohit, 2001). Consistently, the government opted to take responsibility of the problem in this policy. Another consideration is to develop a policy at the national level or decentralise this to the local government. The South African government again option to undertake policy determination at the national level. This is necessary since the envisioned solution constituted multi-department and multi-sector participation best initiated by the national government.
However, there was recognition of the role of the local government in implementation. The strengthening of the local government to support autonomy remains a challenge. Another consideration was whether to formulate a policy targeting short or long-term outcomes. The South African government made a sound decision in opting for along-term policy this time because the broad scope of the problem meant the targeted outcomes are sustainable. An additional consideration for this problem is the consideration of sole government responsibility or coordinated action across departments and sectors.
The South African government opted for coordination, which fits the broad components of the problem. This last consideration coincided with the MDGs, which are also multi-department and comprehensive goals. A comprehensive view of the problem of HIV/AIDS in this policy was an adoption of the perspective forwarded by the MDGs. The objectives aligned with the broad scope of the problem by including nutrition levels, improvement in education, increasing health centres, hiring and training more health workers as the objectives.
The budget allocated also matched the broader scope of the problem with the South African government increasing the budget by more then ten percent. The government itself admitted that it has allocated a sizable budget towards this policy. However, since it is targeting coordinated actions that not only addressed HIV/AIDS but also other related problems such as low levels of education and poor nutrition, the government considered these benefits greater than the cost.