Bush Seeks Increased Funding for International AIDS Relief (2)
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Dear Colleagues
I like numbers... they help me to understand what is going on a
lot better than words and words and words.
But I like the numbers to reflect something useful... and I
worry about the numbers being talked about in the recent message
about additional funding for US assistance for HIV-AIDS inter-
ventions posted on this list.
I quote: "The State Department says the number of people it is
helping reached 42 million last year, although critics say not
enough is being done."
The idea that the US has gone from helping just 50,000 people to
42 million since 2003 is pretty impressive... but exactly what
do these numbers mean. 42 million is a big number. Are 42 mil-
lion people getting substantial help or is it a case of having
one condom a year... which I believe was the effective scope of
the assistance in one African country where the US considered it
had a big and effective program.
I would like to get some better information from Washington
about the fund flows in their HIV-AIDS programs, just as I would
good information about their other programs of relief and devel-
opment assistance. From the data that are easily available, I
sense that rather a small proportion of assistance needs are be-
ing met, and priorities from Washington are rarely optimised
relative to local communities.
Is it too much to ask that the public knows how much money is
disbursed, who it goes to, and what results are being achieved?
The reports last year about 'Phantom Aid' should have alerted us
all to the need for much better transparency about fund flows in
the relief and development sector.
I like numbers... but I like them to mean something, and really
reflect reality.
Sincerely,
Peter Burgess
Tr-Ac-Net in New York
Tel. +1-212-772-6918
mailto:peterbnyc@gmail.com
The Transparency and Accountability Network
http://tr-ac-net.blogspot.com
http://www.tr-ac-net.org