Where is the information to manage success?
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Feedback from Bangkok
Dear Colleagues,
I have just read the following in a message from the AIDS Con-
ference in Bangkok (the full text of the message is attached at
the end).
"We now have a wealth of experience with a range of healthcare
approaches, some that have worked and some that have not. We
should all learn from these. Ignoring what we know is effective
will always bring healthcare interventions back to square one.
The result will be felt worst by infected communities, and even-
tually lead to orphaned or vulnerable children. The hope is that
the lesson of prevention does not have to be re-learned at the
cost of those least able to influence health policies."
That we have a wealth of experience may be true. But it is not
readily accessed. How exactly does one learn about what works
and what does not with the present information regime? Where is
the information? Certainly, we should learn, but how? Where is
the information located so that the learning can be done easily?
Where is the accounting and accountability and transparency?
Where are the costs set out and rigorously compared to the bene-
fits derived?
I would have liked to see the Global Fund (GFATM) structured so
that the success and failure of its funding could be seen
(transparency) and the effectiveness of its funding used as a
tool for learning. As it has turned out the GFATM has adopted
rather typical official development assistance (ODA) methodolo-
gies with a big focus on the approval process and much less em-
phasis on the results actually achieved.
It is my understanding that the performance aspect is being han-
dled by the GFATM's local fund agents (LFAs) who are meant to
have a presence on the ground, but nothing of what they do, as
far as I can tell results in information that can be used to
learn anything specific about use of funds and benefits arising,
and to learn the lessons from prior practice. To the extent that
it might exist, I do not believe it is information that is in
the public domain and easily accessible in a useful format.
What I think is being said by the delegates in Bangkok is that
the international institution sits on top of a country's coordi-
nating structure and is effectively insulated from community
level activities, and there is little hope for community level
success to get funded and expanded. Maybe I have this wrong, but
this is the impression I have.
The Afrifund Project has started to compile information about
what is being done at the community level.... because it is at
this level that performance can be costed and valued..... and it
is at this level that activities should be funded. In the corpo-
rate world this is where accounting starts to become management
accounting, and the same applies in the development context. Al-
ready the data compiled gives us the ability to begin a useful
dialog at the community level, and this dialog can serve to sort
out the priorities. Maybe with effective database driven ac-
countability it will be possible for the first time for good
small initiatives to be funded instead of the bigger, easier and
far less effective programs that have dominated use of funds in
development for years.
Sincerely
Peter Burgess
in New York
Tel: + 1-212-772-6918
mailto:peterb@afrifund.com
http://www.afrifund.com
http://www.afrifund.com/wiki/index.pcgi?page=AIDSBangkokFeedback
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Original Posting
Subj: [partnersgf] 1st Partnership Forum:
Providing space for unheard voices