Will US AIDS cash make a difference? (2)
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Dear Colleagues
Will US AIDS cash make a difference? Absolutely yes. It is difficult
to have US$ 15 billion and not make a difference.
The world now knows that President Bush has followed up on his State
of the Union statement early in the year about HIV-AIDS.
But that is not the same, of course, as the challenge of actually
getting the funds mobilized so as to make a difference in the pro-
gression of the health and HIV-AIDS crisis around the world.
We are still faced with the problem of taking the recently passed US
legislation and converting it into disbursement. I hope we will see
an ongoing accounting of how much of this famous US$ 15 billion actu-
ally gets disbursed, whether it is in the NORTH or the SOUTH. There
is work to be done around the appropriations systems of the US gov-
ernment which are different from the talk about new legislation that
has been going on recently.
We are still faced with the ongoing problem of making best use of
available funds. I have not yet seen any compelling evidence, let
alone accounting, that suggests that we are making best use of avail-
able funds. In fact, I am more of the view that we are not even mak-
ing good use of a lot of the funds that are available. Far too large
a proportion of the funds cycle around the NORTH and never get to do
very much on the ground in the SOUTH. I still do not see any meaning-
ful numerical analysis of this problem, but it is obvious that it is
huge.
And we are still faced with some unfortunate linkages between this
"new" funding and some of the funding that is existing. The "rules"
about use of this new money may well have a negative impact on the
old funding...... so there will be some program disruption. How much
remains to be seen.
I am pleased that there is some substantial money now that has passed
Congress. Now the challenge is to get it mobilized..... and then put
into worthwhile activities.... and I would like to see some half de-
cent accounting and accountability so that there is a fighting chance
of seeing how valuable this funding really has been...... or maybe
even, how badly the funds get used.
I will also add that because the money is being discussed in the bil-
lions, that a lot of "lobbying" and support for the programs is going
to come from powerful quarters in both the SOUTH and the NORTH. Get-
ting access to use this money is going to be a priority....... while
using this money to have the maximum impact on the progression of
health and HIV-AIDS crisis may well become a secondary issue
Sincerely
Peter Burgess
ATCnet in New York
Tel: + 1-212-772-6918
Fax: + 1-707-371-7805
mailto:peterb@iitc.safe-mail.net
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