Donors keeping their promises is the key to good aid effectiveness. The Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan needs to respond to donors who fail to implement aid effectiveness principles.
Donors keeping their promises is the key to good aid effectiveness. The Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan needs to respond to donors who fail to implement aid effectiveness principles.
Accra 2006 and Accra 2011
A few days ago I was in Accra, where the board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria decided to cancel Round 11 (the next round of grant allocations). To a large extent, this was down to the failure of many donors to honour their funding pledges. You can do your own math. This is ironic considering that donors made a commitment in Accra in 2006 to increase the predictability of aid flows.
I was in Accra as a member of the Global Fund Communities delegation for people affected by HIV/Aids, tuberculosis and malaria and acted as the voice for those afflicted with malaria. Our delegation ensures that the Global Fund delivers universal access to high-quality treatment, care, and support for communities living with and affected by the three diseases based on the principles of equity and human rights.
Busan 2011
Today I am in Busan. Tomorrow, donors will gather to discuss how much progress has been made since 2006. There will also be discussions on how to improve and strengthen the Paris and Accra aid effectiveness commitments. Moreover, the ‘development cooperation’ agenda will be raised by emerging economies.
All these discussions are very welcome. However, they are ignoring the elephant in the room – the fact that the Global Fund, one of the most efficient aid effectiveness mechanisms, is being paralysed. Funding for HIV/Aids, tuberculosis and malaria has been frozen until 2014. Health MDG commitments will fail as programmes come to an abrupt halt waiting for Round 11 monies. Millions could die. There will be no scale-up of treatment for those who need it today.
Meanwhile, multidrug resistant malaria is threatening to spread in South East Asia. This could potentially have an acutely adverse effect on the response to malaria in Africa, which has successfully used Global Fund monies to reduce malaria-related deaths in 11 African countries by 50% in the last five years.
The Global Fund implements aid effectiveness in practice. As a health-sector mechanism, it advocates good governance and transparent and accountable processes that are country-owned among all donors and implementing governments, civil society, the private sector and private foundations on the Fund’s board. It saves millions of lives and reaches out to the most excluded, such as people who use drugs, sex workers and gay people.
At the same time, no organization functions in a completely ideal way. The Global Fund has identified several problems related to the organization’s efficiency and effectiveness, and there is now a clear plan to address these issues. The Global Fund is not a bad model, however. In fact, it is widely recognized as one of the best that we have (see the United Kingdom government’s ‘Multilateral Aid Review’, which rates the Global Fund as ‘very good value for money’).
Debates about aid at the Busan forum must not avoid the key question of the impact that donors’ failing mechanisms will have on aid effectiveness. Facing this issue will take the aid effectiveness agenda to a higher level.
What next?
Donors keeping their promises is the key to good aid effectiveness. The Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan needs to respond to donors who fail to implement aid effectiveness principles. Medium- to long-term predictable financing is crucial for sustainable development. The first of December is World AIDS day, and it is also the last day of the Busan forum. Let us use this opportunity to ask donors why, while verbally supporting aid effectiveness, they are failing so many people in need. Donors need to practice what they preach.
I am attending the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness and open for communication with the media. Contact: ldagama@gmail.com