Africa fooled on Mosquito/Malaria Control? (12)
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Dear Colleagues
The issue of malaria in Africa is too serious, and I hope we
will not be sidetracked by the polarized partisan politics of
the United States. The simple labels that get attached to Democ-
rats and Republicans these days are very distorting, and it
seems to me that there are good ideas on both sides of the
American political divide. What are the good ideas?
I have tried to speak out for many years now on the issue of
getting value for money in relief and development, and it is
quite clear that there has been a much larger fund flow of re-
lief and development assistance than there has been easily iden-
tifiable use of that money in the most needy places... and very
little of tangible value (compared to resources flowing) deliv-
ered by the web of organizations that were meant to be deliver-
ing assistance.
I am not at all happy for example about the transparency and ac-
countability in connection with the funds mobilized to help in
the Tsunami crisis. The waste of resources in the recent Katrina
catastrophy is mind-boggling. The relationship between the loud
rhetoric of what we are going to do (that never happens) and the
absolute silence about what the money that was disbursed failed
to do.
The recent offers to help put together meaningful plans to ad-
dress the malaria problem posted by members of this list is en-
couraging. The possibility that others can help in mobilizing
resources that can be used efficiently to implement practical
programs... and the commitment to really get results that matter
with the resources that are available... with transparency and
accountability... is progress.
I am less impressed by what people say than what people do. I am
not impressed by size... I like results that are large in rela-
tion to the resources that are consumed. I have not seen much of
that in the work that I have done over the years with the World
Bank, and various agencies of the UN system. I have seen some
health sector excellence over the years, but also failures.
The idea that a big plan and big disbursement solves the problem
does not impress me... I am impressed by results. When it comes
to malaria, too much of Africa has NO RESULTS in the malaria
sub-sector and it is time for this to be changed.
At the present time the Republican US administration has deliv-
ered on the rhetoric of helping in the malaria sub-sector in Af-
rica... NOW how do we mobilize these resources so that GREAT RE-
SULTS are achieved?
Sincerely,
Peter Burgess
Tr-Ac-Net in New York
Tel: +1-212 772 6918
mailto:peterbnyc@gmail.com
The Transparency and Accountability Network
With Kris Dev in Chennai India
and others in South Asia, Africa and Latin America
http://tr-ac-net.blogspot.com
http://www.tr-ac-net.org