Iro-nsi Bose Credit:Miriam Gathigah/IPS

By Miriam Gathigah

BUSAN, South Korea, Dec 1, 2011 (IPS) – Gender champions have lauded the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness for providing gender equality and the empowerment of women a special session, but there is dissatisfaction with Thursday’s Busan outcome document.

Although the document alluded to gender equality, experts feel that the scope is narrow and does not really touch the core issues that can be catalytic to the empowerment of women.

“There has been progress since the Paris Declaration, which had no mention of gender equality. In the Accra declaration, gender equality achieved some recognition in relation to development. Today, we have moved slightly beyond Accra,” said Kate Lappin, regional coordinator of the Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development. But, she is emphatic that economic development is not a comprehensive indicator of human development.

Lappin said “women’s human rights were not integrated throughout the Busan outcome document.” Perhaps this explains why although the Busan conference coincided with two important global events on human rights, particularly in relation to gender, women’s rights did not form part of the Busan agenda.

Women account for more than half of the HIV/AIDS disease burden globally as also the burden of care, but the Busan Forum had nothing to say about how aid effectiveness can also mean life saving drugs reaching poor women.

United Nations statistics show that across the world, one in every three women has suffered some form of abuse, be it physical, emotional or sexual.

Campaigns for a world where women can be free and enjoy their rights without fear and intimidation are funds driven. It costs money to integrate Gender-Based Violence (GBV) awareness and sensitisation programmes in the health sector.

“Currently, Nigeria is still coming to terms with the brutal murder of Titi Omozojie, a young woman who is alleged to have been mutilated by her husband in a domestic quarrel,” said Iro-nsi Bose, executive director of Women’s Rights and Health Projects in Lagos, Nigeria.

“Civil society took to the streets and ensured that she was not hurriedly buried to impede proper investigation. This led to her husband being charged and is awaiting trial for murder,” Bose explained.

Prioritising the wellbeing of women is an important component of development, Bose said. “We cannot talk about real development when our women, young and old alike are butchered to death.”

Although a Joint Busan Action Plan on Gender Equality and Development is one of the outcomes of the conference, it is considered to be limited.

“The three E’s (education, employment, entrepreneurship) approach of the U.S. government was a very limited vision and disappointing – not a step forward,” said Lappin.

“It is nonetheless limited in the sense that it only looks into two outcomes: increasing the number of women in the labour force as well as improving their chances to access microfinance.

“There is no mention of, for instance, women’s labour rights. If we are to get more women into the workforce, then there are some practical needs to be put in place,” Lappin said.

Indeed, women are often at a crossroads between human production and economic production and when these two roles conflict, then they have to give up the economic venture to be able to look after the human resource.

It was expected that Busan will show a real commitment to women’s human rights as part of development effectiveness.

Bose said that “Omozojie’s untimely death is just the tip of the iceberg.

“There is still a great degree and extent of GBV across Africa. Yet, Busan offered no real commitment to champion women’s human rights as a development agenda. Instead, there was a strong focus to ensure that effective aid transforms poor countries into middle income nations.” (END)

An internally-displaced Kenyan woman cooks in her makeshift kitchen. Credit:Miriam Gathigah/IPS

Analysis by Miriam Gathigah

BUSAN, South Korea, Dec 13, 2011 (IPS) – Women’s rights champions are not prepared to let the dust settle on the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness that ended in this South Korean port city on Dec. 1 with the customary nod towards gender equality and empowerment.

The Busan Outcome Document’s paragraph 20 says: “We must accelerate our efforts to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of women through development programmes grounded in country priorities, recognising that gender equality and women’s empowerment are critical to achieving development results.”

Roselynn Musa, programme manager at the African Women’s Development and Communication Network, says, “Busan is not the end, but the beginning.

“As we turn a new leaf, there is no time to wait for the dust to settle before we roll up our sleeves and get our hands dirty. We need to start engaging with our governments to ensure that they move paragraph 20 of the Busan Outcome Document into the lives of women,” Musa said.

Although many gender experts continue to express discontent with the handling of the issue of women’s empowerment at the Busan conference, they agree that there was an increased show of interest in the plight of women compared to the previous forum in Accra, Ghana.

Says Monica Njenga, a gender activist in Kenya: “Previous international conferences offered many promises to women, hoodwinking them into believing that there is a real interest in fighting gender inequalities and narrow down gender gaps. Women need to take initiative and make paragraph 20 work.”

Njenga adds that many developing countries are facing major socio-economic challenges and may not prioritise the Busan commitment to gender.

“In Kenya, citizens continue to struggle as the cost of living continues to skyrocket. Labour unrest is now unprecedented with doctors in public hospitals having been on a week- long strike. The army is also at war with Al Shabab in Somalia. Gender equality is perhaps the last thing on the government’s list of priorities.”

In spite of these challenges, gender champions believe they can use the Busan document to leverage the gender agenda. One of these is Mayra Moro-Coco, development policy and advocacy manager at the Association for Women Rights in Development.

“The global partnership coming out of Busan will aim to reach effective development cooperation,” says Moro-Coco.

“Working for development effectiveness means promoting a development model that shifts the dominant development scenario towards an inclusive, sustainable, and just paradigm that recognises and values reproductive and unpaid work, promotes decent work and promotes the empowerment, human rights and emancipation of women and girls,” she said.

Moro-Coco lays emphasis on the need for various stakeholders to acknowledge that “development effectiveness requires democratic ownership by women and meaningful and systematic participation by civil society, especially women’s and feminist organisations.”

The global partnership that resulted from the Busan conference shows no real commitment to the human rights approach to development, says Moro-Coco.

This, she says, poses a challenge for initiatives and interventions geared towards “advancing development and poverty eradication in ways that are democratic and coherent with international human rights standards and give adequate attention to women’s human rights, the right to development and environmental justice.”

Moro-Coco expresses concern about the implementation of the Busan global partnership since the document “has not given adequate attention to women’s rights, the right to development and environmental justice.”

Paragraph 20 does express an interest in reducing gender inequality as “both an end in its own right and a prerequisite for sustainable and inclusive growth.”

It also recognises the need to “accelerate and deepen efforts to collect, disseminate, harmonise and make full use of data disaggregated by sex to inform policy decisions and guide investments, ensuring in turn that public expenditures are targeted appropriately to benefit both women and men.”

These, many feel, are not enough.

Says Njenga: “Promises are easy to make. Women need to show their leaders that they mean business. If indeed women account for a majority of the population, especially in developing countries where gross gender inequalities thrive, they need to make their votes count.”

Njenga believes that women should vote for leaders “who have tangible results to show as commitment to women rights.

“During campaigns, most leaders give gender issues lip service only to be voted in and disappear from the gender forums. This needs to change.”

(END)

Emilia Pires, finance minister of Timor Leste. Credit: Suvendrini Kakuchi/IPS

BUSAN, South Korea, Dec 2, 2011 (IPS) – The new deal for the ‘fragile states,’ from the G7+ – a group of 19 countries that struggle with poverty, instability and violent conflict – has been hailed as a major breakthrough at the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness here, earlier this week.

‘The 1.5 billion people who live in the fragile states need significant aid for basic governance and economic transformation. Most of them have seen conflict since 1989 and 30 percent of official development assistance (ODA) is spent in fragile and conflict-affected contexts.

Despite the aid commitments, the fragile states are moving further from achieving the millennium development goals (MDGs).

The new deal builds on the base of five new goals – legitimate politics, justice, security, economic foundations and revenue and services – that are tailored to individual situations. Fragile states include Afghanistan, South Sudan, Kenya and Timor Leste.

Emilia Pires, Timor Leste’s finance minister has worked tirelessly to changetraditional development assistance to accommodate the particular vulnerabilities of the fragile states.

Excerpts from the interview follow:

Q. The endorsement of the new deal in Busan is viewed as a major achievement in development. What does it signify?

A. For fragile states, the realisation of the new deal symbolises a bold change in the way aid has been disbursed and affected us. For a start, Busan has clearly accepted that these countries will lead the way in their development.

The message from us is that the target of reaching the MDGs by 2015 cannot be applied to fragile states that have experienced or are already dealing with conflicts and crisis. There is clearly the need for new conditions to be applied to aid for fragile states. This is what we were agitating for and realised finally.

Q: What are the new ways that will be implemented following the new deal?

A: Obviously, the breakthrough in Busan is just the beginning. Now comes the hard part of implementation and I expect a lot of fighting with our donor partners as we go ahead. For example, developing clear indicators to monitor results. The traditional practice has been that donors monitor the progress.

The new deal that endorses country ownership would pave the way for fragile governments to expect donors to support our own monitoring through experts.

What is important is that the experts would be working with us to develop the results instead of being dispatched by lending institutions to do their own monitoring. This change would enable the local partner to be able to participate and learn about monitoring results and contribute to development effectiveness.

Q: Why has development assistance failed in fragile states?

A: The above example is apt to illustrate why traditional aid patterns have not worked – simply because the aid modality in the world has not strengthened community capacity on the ground. Our dialogue with G7 partners stressed the need for changing the pattern of aid focusing narrowly on the MDGs for fragile states.

For example, aid extended to improve education access for the poor – an MDG goal – could not be used effectively in fragile states because a crisis would mean children cannot attend school. As a result, funds have to be returned.

With the new deal, however, indicators that take in the problems due to crisis will be taken into consideration. Developing such new structures based on individual country systems is the key way forward.

Q: The new deal has specifically identified engaging youth and women as important actors in peace and state building. How will this be done?

A: Fostering capacity building in youth in Timor Leste is hugely important. I would describe this as extending opportunities for them to learn and look ahead. They deserve to be exposed to the same opportunities as their counterparts in countries that have not experienced conflict and violence.

It must be noted that generations of youth who have experienced long conflicts including in Timor have only experienced violence. A strong symbol of this is the fact that children in Timor have not played on swings that represent such joy to other children.

To change the mindset, governments must invest in capacity building and projects that give hope and support safe family systems. We need swings, concerts for youth as much as we need hospitals and schools. This is why I say let’s build roads that, for example, may lead to nowhere but will still be effective because youth will learn the skills of road building.

Q: What has changed in Busan in aid effectiveness?

A: The Paris Declaration set the road to country ownership but in Busan we see this becoming a reality. The dismal statistics in aid effectiveness have proved to the world the need to change current behaviour. The new deal offers them a new way by proving that aid for them involves money but for us it is life.

The basic principles are not different. I believe in the importance of transparency, democratic processes and accountability. For instance, the national budget in Timor is available online. Therefore, it is the attitude that we need to change. The donor countries must realise poor countries can make their own decisions and many are making the effort to do this.

(END)

Reclamando el derecho a la salud en el 4 Foro de Alto Nivel sobre Eficacia de la Ayuda al Desarrollo, en Busan, Corea del Sur. Crédito: Miriam Gathigah/IPS

Por Miriam Gathigah

BUSAN, Corea del Sur, 1 dic (IPS)  El Día Mundial de la Lucha contra el Sida se conmemora este jueves 1 buscando lograr “cero nuevas infecciones por el VIH, cero discriminación y cero muertes relacionadas”. En África también se necesitaría cero tolerancia a la corrupción en el manejo de los fondos de ayuda a su combate.

“Solamente en África oriental, a Uganda le suspendieron su principal fuente de financiamiento en la lucha contra el VIH (virus de inmunodeficiencia humana, causante del sida). En varias ocasiones, Kenia estuvo a punto de correr un destino similar, porque había evidencias de que se había generalizado la indebida apropiación de fondos de la campaña”, dijo John Peter Kaguruzi, analista de políticas públicas en Ruanda.

“En Djibouti, de los 5,3 millones de dólares de concesión de fondos para la lucha contra el VIH, 750.000 dólares se usaron para gastos que no se pueden explicar. Historias similares pululan en Zambia y Malí. Es probable que más auditorías revelen un mal uso de esos fondos, lo que les ha negado a muchas personas el acceso a iniciativas preventivas y curativas”, dijo Kaguruzi.

Crear conciencia es importante en lugares como Kenia, donde los afectados son estigmatizados y considerados promiscuos. Cuando fallecen, los entierran en bolsas de polietileno.

Con el paso de los años, los keniatas se volvieron más conscientes de la pandemia, pero eso no redujo el estigma que se la asocia.

Tampoco redujo de modo significativo las conductas sexuales de riesgo. Alrededor de 1,4 millones de keniatas son portadores de VIH.

Estadísticas del Programa Conjunto de las Naciones Unidas sobre el VIH/Sida (Onusida) estiman que 22,5 millones de personas viven con VIH en África subsahariana. Poco más de la mitad son mujeres, y los niños y niñas representan 2,3 millones.

Años de investigaciones no han logrado acercarse a una cura para el VIH/sida (síndrome de inmunodeficiencia adquirida) y, solamente en África subsahariana, la enfermedad se cobra por lo menos un millón de vidas cada año.

Pero si millones de africanos infectados con el VIH todavía están vivos es gracias a los fondos aportados por donantes, que les permiten acceder a fármacos vitales.

“Se necesita más financiamiento para brindar tratamiento”, dijo a IPS la enfermera keniata Mary Naliaka.

Pero tal vez no sea más financiamiento lo que necesitan los países africanos. Una auditoría realizada en 25 de los 145 países que reciben asistencia para combatir el VIH reveló que, solamente en Mauritania, 67 por ciento de la ayuda fue incorrectamente usada, explicó Kaguruzi.

“Esto no solo es una señal de que hay corrupción generalizada. En algunos países, los controladores no evaluaron la subvención total, sino solamente una parte. En Djibouti, por ejemplo, se auditó apenas 80 por ciento del fondo, revelando 30 por ciento de uso inapropiado”, agregó.

La falta de fondos afecta a programas que crean conciencia sobre el VIH/sida, así como a las campañas que brindan preservativos gratuitos.

“A menudo, los dispensadores de condones están vacíos”, dijo a IPS la consejera Ann Kariuki, quien trabaja en un centro de análisis voluntarios en Kenia.

Cuando en enero de 2002 se creó el Fondo Mundial de Lucha contra el Sida, la Tuberculosis y la Malaria como una asociación público-privada, el objetivo fue brindar apoyo financieros a respuestas mundiales ante esas tres enfermedades. Sin embargo, con el Fondo en medio de una crisis financiera, tal vez esto no sea posible.

“El Fondo Mundial salva diariamente 4.400 vidas en países pobres, como los africanos”, dijo el activista ugandés Peter Mwendwa.

“Suecia ya le suspendió 83 millones de dólares hasta que se resuelva la crisis”, señaló. Suecia es uno de los principales contribuyentes al Fondo.

En Sudáfrica, la Treatment Action Campaign, una organización de activistas contra el sida que brinda tratamiento gratuito a personas con VIH, dijo que cerrará sus puertas si el Fondo Mundial no cumple sus compromisos monetarios.

Para realizar gran parte de su trabajo, la organización recibió un subsidio quinquenal del Fondo, que también financia el tratamiento de 70 por ciento de los pacientes con VIH en países pobres.

Pero una evaluación de cómo se gasta el dinero del Fondo Mundial en África reveló gruesas incorrecciones en el uso de las concesiones, impidiendo que muchas personas infectadas y que necesitan tratamiento antirretroviral tengan la oportunidad de llevar vidas saludables.

Desde febrero, el Fondo Mundial dejó al descubierto el mal uso de dineros en 11 de los 145 países pobres receptores de estos aportes, por una suma total de 44,2 millones de dólares.

El Fondo Mundial “ya recuperó 4,5 millones de dólares y presentó evidencias que respaldan las investigaciones penales en Malí, Mauritania y Zambia”.

En estos países se llevaron a cabo por lo menos 20 arrestos, mientras el Fondo Mundial investiga los hechos de corrupción.

A Malí, Mauritania y Zambia también se les suspendieron sus concesiones. Lo mismo ocurrió con otros países, como Chad, Uganda y Djibouti.

Este año el Fondo emitió un comunicado en el que declaró que había establecido medidas estrictas “para reforzar sus salvaguardas financieras y aumentar su capacidad de prevenir y detectar casos de fraude y de uso inapropiado de sus aportes, muchos de los cuales ya están en curso”.

Según ese comunicado, estas medidas incluyen “expandir el mandato de las firmas que controlan los gastos en los países a fin de potenciar la prevención y detección de fraudes”.

BUSAN, South Korea, Dec 1, 2011 (IPS) – Inclusiveness was the winner as donors, recipient governments, emerging economies, multilateral lenders and civil society representatives hammered out a consensual document at the close of a major meeting in this South Korean city to boost development aid effectiveness.

Credit:Miriam Gathigah/IPS

“The process has been bumpy but we have landed safely. The challenge is to move ahead along a less divided and more unified front,” said Talaat Abdel-Malek, co-chair of the Development Aid Committee (DAC) of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

Abdel-Malek was referring to the Busan Outcome Document, released Thursday, that has been endorsed not only by traditional donors but also by new players such as China, India and Brazil that emerged as key actors at the three-day Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness (HLF4).

The document pledged to “establish a new, inclusive and representative global partnership for effective development co-operation” and spoke of Busan as reference for South-South partnerships “on a voluntary basis.”

The rise of new players that do not belong to the Northern countries, particularly China, has become a complex issue in the development world. China insisted that the document was voluntary.

Under the new South-South co-operation, the group of emerging donors has launched small- and medium-scale bilateral and multilateral aid projects in poor countries. They provide knowledge, funds and technical expertise that primarily call for a results-based approach.

The approach has raised concern and pressure is rising to encourage the new actors to join the DAC that is committed to regulations and principles that support transparency, democratic rule and diverse stakeholders.

Economic slowdown in the big donor countries, including the United States, the European Union and Japan, that led the way over the past half century, has raised the risk of a squeeze in funding.

Paul Okuma, head of Secretariat Africa CSO Platform on Principled Partnership, Kenya, explained that the changes in aid are here to stay. “The politics have changed,” he told IPS, echoing the common voice in Busan that the European Union and the U.S. are no longer the only drivers in the development aid seat.

“The thrust for all development actors is to get along with China to support the need of the state which is growth. The option we face is to work with citizens in developing countries to be more aware of their own development effectiveness. This is the lesson in Busan,” he explained.

Experts at the conference expressed viewpoints that supported the role of emerging donors in global aid.

“In order to create a space for diverse development actors, the road ahead must be one that calls for understanding and accepting differences. The danger is to compare apples and oranges and force countries such as China to join traditional donor groups. This will not work,” said a senior official at the United Nations who declined to be named.

Li Shaojin, a Chinese official at the co-operation division of the international poverty reduction centre, told IPS that China’s contribution to development is based on its own experience that depended heavily on its own manpower and natural resources.

“China built its country relying on simple resources in its own country. We gained expertise in such areas as water resource management that has mobilised people who worked hard with local materials to expand our agriculture, industry and economy. We can share what we have with poor farmers around the world,” she said.

The Chinese official brushed aside concerns raised by experts on southern co-operation ignoring partnerships with local civil society organisations (CSOs), pointing out that the education and capacity building at the rural level in China was done with local groups.

Such comments, according to Prof. Masayoshi Ohashi, a development expert in Japan, reflect the growing need to move cautiously on the unified global co-operation model.

“The perception among some of us is that Busan watered down aid commitments to push through a global partnership. There is indeed a perception difference with the traditional donor world where hard won breakthroughs to earn better transparency and accountability should have been beefed up… in Busan,” he told IPS.

Still, Northern aid is riddled with issues. Stark examples of poor performance include the Millennium Development Goals that may exceed the 2015 deadline and the inability of DAC donors to contribute 0.7 percent of the GDP for aid disbursements.

Korean aid expert Jee-hae Ha, at Korea Eximbank, said South Korea, a new donor and member of DAC, has played the role of mediator in the debate to accept partnerships with middle-income countries.

“The South Korean development experience is based on strong growth at the beginning and also democratic principles that have become important now. The political statement of aid has been Northern countries at the top which South Korea is helping to balance,” she said.

The OECD co-hosted the meet with the South Korean government. Busan, a thriving port city and the second largest in the country, has been the venue and, according to delegates from developing countries, an inspiring model of development.

South Korean Prime Minister Kim Hwang-Sik has promised to double aid to 0.25 percent of national GDP. The high-profile meeting, held for the first time in Asia, is symbolic of increasing growth and consensus and marks a dramatic shift in development assistance away from the West.

END

Jean-Louis Sarbib. Credit: Miriam Gathigah

BUSAN, Dec 1, 2011 (IPS) – Representatives of nations and organisations committed to development wrapped up on Thursday the Fourth High Level Forum (HLF 4) on Aid Effectiveness with an ambitious plan to eradicate global poverty.

One cross-cutting issue through HLF 4 was the importance of transparency and accountability between donors and recipients of development assistance. Transparent practices are a strong foundation for enhanced accountability.

Towards this end, Development Gateway, an international non-profit,   works in the field of Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D).

A number of African countries are reaping the benefits of working in an environment where information about donor funding is easily accessible.

Q: What is the mandate of Development Gateway towards effective aid?                                                                                                               

A: We work with governments that receive aid to improve aid transparency and governance. This is achieved through information management solutions and consulting services for development organisations and developing country governments.

Q: Tell us more about your work in Africa.

A: We are now working with 16 African countries and are still working to expand this network. The idea is to provide these countries with instruments that really put them in charge of development assistance.

After the Accra HLF, we developed a system owned and managed by these countries to ensure that up to date information on which donor is funding which initiative is made available.

Q: What does your transparency and accountability tools entail?

A: One of the our tools to enhance transparency and accountability – The Aid Management Platform – is an opportunity to give people a chance to balance power between themselves and the donors, it’s about placing people in the driver’s seat of development assistance.

Q: How does Aid Management Platform work?

A: We begin by identifying a target country. Our information technology system does an analysis of how the government gets information. They then proceed to work with the government and respective donors to come into an agreement on how to make information on funding available.

Q: What are some of the benefits of this initiative?

A: It is a sustainable way of ensuring that people are involved in development assistance. It provides information that can help avoid duplication of funding and initiatives for development and growth.

We also realised that government and development officials spend a lot of time trying to get information, so this gives them more time to actually get the work done.

It also allows governments to better manage donors and hold them accountable towards development effectiveness.

Q: To what extent are donors willing to be transparent and accountable?

A: There is a donor willingness to be accountable. About 60 percent of aid is covered under the International Aid Transparent Initiative and this is a good indication that donors are willing to allow their grantees to hold them accountable.

Q: Are there any outstanding models of success?

A: In Malawi, for example, the people have been able to gather donors in one room and hold them accountable for what they are not doing, for instance, not making information on initiatives they are funding available on time.

We are also working towards integrating Uganda into this initiative. One of the projects in the pipeline has identified that there is a significantly high number of mobile phone users, we want to enable these people to send data from the provinces into the central database using this gadgets.

For instance, a person somewhere in a village will be able to communicate that the donor-funded clinic has stock outs, or the water project has stalled, among other life transforming stories.

Q: What has been the greatest challenge?

A: The major challenge in Africa is Internet connectivity. Our initiative comprises web-paged tools. In DRC Congo for instance, we have experienced major challenges because the Internet connectivity is extremely low.

Q: In what ways will Busan impact this initiative?

A: I hope Busan has convinced donors to provide information in a better manner, on time, and also use friendly format. It is important that donors take stock of the fact that the world of development assistance has really changed. There are now more actors. For the first time the HLF has acknowledged civil society organisations, the new actors.

I am pleased to say that this conference has acknowledged the South-South cooperation. (END)

Demanding Right to Health at Busan. Credit: Miriam Gathigah

BUSAN, Dec 01, 2011 (IPS) – As the curtain comes down on the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in this South Korean city, thursday, billions of people  will be marking yet another World AIDS Day –  this one themed ‘Getting to Zero,’ for zero AIDS-related deaths, zero new infections and zero stigma and discrimination.

But, in Africa, what may be needed is zero tolerance to corruption so that funds needed to fight HIV/AIDS and create awareness does not get siphoned away.

Creating awareness has been important in places like Kenya where those afflicted were considered extremely promiscuous.  When they died, they were buried in a polythene bag.

No one would drink from a cup that a person known to be infected with HIV had touched.

Over the years, Kenyans have become more aware of HIV/AIDS but that has not reduced the stigma attached to the disease. Neither has it significantly reduced risky sexual behaviour. Some 1.4 million Kenyans are currently infected with HIV.

Statistics by UNAIDS, the joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS prevention and cure, show that an estimated 22.5 million people were living with HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa. Slightly over half of them are women. Children have not been spared; they account for 2.3 million of this figure.

Since years of research do not seem to have brought scientists any closer to discovering a cure for HIV/AIDS, the condition claims at least one million lives every year in Sub-Saharan Africa alone.

If millions of people in Africa infected with HIV are still alive it is because of donor funding that makes it possible for them to access life-sustaining drugs.

“There’s need for more funding to provide treatment,” Mary Naliaka, a nurse in Kenya, told IPS on an earlier occasion.

But more funding is perhaps not what African countries need. Widespread corruption has made it difficult for African countries to make any notable dent in HIV prevalence.

Programmes that popularise prevention of HIV/AIDS by creating more awareness of the condition, establishing HIV programmes in health facilities and providing free condoms are all affected by  diversion of funds.

“People are extremely afraid of HIV but they make choices which don’t reflect an understanding of the devastating effect that this disease has had on mankind,” Ann Kariuki, counsellor at an HIV/AIDS voluntary testing centre in Kenya, told IPS.

“In Africa, which continues to bear the highest burden of the disease, risky sexual behaviour remains rampant,” she said.

When the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria was established in January 2002 as a public-private partnership, the aim was to provide financial support for global responses to HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis (TB), and malaria.

For many African countries this was an opportunity to provide treatment for ailing people who at that time lived for an average of about six years

“In poor countries, treatment for 70 percent of HIV patients is financed by the Global Fund.

But evaluation of how the Global Fund is spent in Africa has revealed gross misappropriation of grants, denying many HIV-positive people in need of anti-retroviral drugs an opportunity to live healthy and normal lives.

As of February 2011 out of 145 poor countries that were recipient of this grant, the Global Fund had uncovered misuse of funds in 11 countries, totalling 44.2 million dollars.

Even more unfortunate is the fact that an estimated 63 percent of  misused funds were identified in four countries – Djibouti, Mali, Mauritania, and Zambia. These countries have very high HIV prevalence rates.

According to Tiaji Salaam-Blyther, a specialist in global health, in line with its policy of zero corruption, “the Global Fund is reported to be seeking compensation of the funds and has already recovered 4.5 million dollars and submitted evidence in support of criminal investigations in Mali, Mauritania, and Zambia.”

At least 20 arrests have been made in these countries as the Global Fund gets to the bottom of who bear the responsibility of misusing funds meant for people with HIV, TB and Malaria for personal gains.

These countries have also had their grants suspended. Others whose funds have been suspended or frozen include Chad, Uganda and Djibouti.

In order to create transparency and accountability, the Global Fund released a statement earlier this year stating that it had established strict measures “to reinforce its financial safeguards and increase its capacity to prevent and detect fraud and misuse in its grants, many of which are already underway.”

According to the statement, these measures include “expanding the mandate of firms that monitor expenditure in countries in order to enhance fraud prevention and detection.”

END

África podría lograr los Objetivos de Desarrollo de las Naciones Unidas para el Milenio mejorando la eficacia de la ayuda. Crédito Miriam Gathigah/IPS.

Por Miriam Gathigah

BUSAN, Corea del Sur, 30 nov (IPS) Los delegados africanos al 4 Foro de Alto Nivel sobre Eficacia de la Ayuda al Desarrollo volverán a casa, este jueves, con muchas historias inspiradoras para intentar que sus respectivos países logren economías de medianos ingresos.

La mayoría de los estados de África tienen una situación mucho mejor que la que tenía hace cinco décadas el país anfitrión del Foro, Corea del Sur.

Este país, ahora con una economía sólida, ofrece una alternativa para los que desean crear asociaciones que permitan mejorar el crecimiento.

Los delegados africanos escucharon con atención al presidente surcoreano Lee Myung Bak en la ceremonia de apertura del Foro, el martes 29, cuando relató el largo y agridulce camino que debió andar su población para llegar a ser un país desarrollado.

Hubo que hacer dolorosos sacrificios, pero dio sus frutos, dijo.

“La historia del desarrollo económico y de la democratización de Corea del Sur está llena de alegrías y tristezas, de gente de a pie que trabajó duro para escapar de la pobreza y soñó con tener una vida decente”, señaló el mandatario.

“La gente suele preguntarme cuál es la clave del éxito de Corea del Sur. Sin duda fue el poder de la educación”, afirmó.

“Aun cuando no había suficiente comida para llevar a la mesa, los padres surcoreanos sacrificaron todo para educar a sus hijos”, remarcó.

“Esos niños y niñas crecieron y encabezaron el desarrollo económico”, indicó el mandatario. “Creo que la educación es la clave para el progreso de las personas, los países y el mundo”, añadió.

El consultor keniata Moses Dura espera que África esté escuchando. “La ayuda es una buena idea. Está destinada a complementar los recursos locales. Pero en la mayoría de los países africanos, los regímenes políticos son corruptos”, señaló.

En Kenia, por ejemplo, hubo varias acusaciones sobre corrupción en ministerios clave, como el de Educación, Agua y Tierras, apuntó.

La corrupción y la falta de responsabilidad en los gobiernos son un cáncer que se come los esfuerzos de los países africanos por convertirse en economías de medianos ingresos y ser menos dependientes de la ayuda.

La secretaria de Estado (canciller) de Estados Unidos, Hillary Rodham Clinton, exhortó en la misma ceremonia del martes a las naciones en desarrollo a asumir y ejercer su responsabilidad por la lentitud del desarrollo.

Muchas organizaciones de la sociedad civil aprovecharon la presencia de Clinton para señalar a Estados Unidos por su responsabilidad en la falta de efectividad de la asistencia. La secretaria de Estado reconoció que su país mantiene una ayuda condicionada que no puede ser totalmente libre.

Eso ocurre pese al consenso general de que la ayuda no condicionada es un elemento sustancial de la efectividad. Es decir que el dinero otorgado al país beneficiario bajo ese concepto se destine a la asistencia al desarrollo.

“Entre 2005 y 2009 duplicamos la proporción de ayuda no condicionada, de32 a68 por ciento”, detalló.

“Todavía necesitamos que un porcentaje de la asistencia siga condicionada para conseguir apoyo político para los presupuestos que transformamos en asistencia al desarrollo”, explicó Clinton.

A medida que se acerca 2015, numerosos países africanos se están muy interesados en que funcione la ayuda para alcanzar los ocho Objetivos de Desarrollo de las Naciones Unidas para el Milenio (ODM).

El presidente Lee dedicó unas palabras a los países africanos que creen que es demasiado tarde para alcanzar esos objetivos.

“Cuando era pequeño, Corea era uno de los países más pobres del mundo. El producto interno bruto era menor a 100 dólares por habitante y el país estaba lleno de gente sin trabajo”, relató.

“Pero en medio siglo, Corea del Sur se reconstruyó, emergió de las cenizas de una guerra devastadora y de la extrema pobreza e instauró una democracia y una economía vibrante. Firmemente creo que el Foro de Busan permitirá alcanzar los ODM y construir un mundo mejor para todos”, añadió.

Ahora más que nunca, África tiene una gran oportunidad para lograr un crecimiento sustancial.

Michael Sudarkasa, experto de la Nueva Alianza para el Desarrollo de África (Nepad), señaló que hay nuevas oportunidades para movilizar recursos a través de asociaciones con China, India e incluso Brasil.

“Pero África necesita donantes que sigan las estrategias de desarrollo de sus países al tiempo que brindan ayuda”, indicó.

“El sector privado africano debe desempeñar un papel mucho mayor para alcanzar los ODM. Los inversores que llegan a África buscan representantes de ese ámbito para crear asociaciones de mutuo beneficio”, explicó Sudarkasa.

Clinton también subrayó la importancia de forjar alianzas para “ayudar a los países ricos en recursos naturales a escapar de la fuga de materia prima que los hacen ricos en petróleo y oro, pero pobres en todo lo demás”.

Con ese fin, Estados Unidos ya está trabajando con Ghana y Tanzania, y señaló que Brasil lo hace con Mozambique en el sector agrícola, pues los dos países tienen suelos similares, además del mismo idioma, apuntó.

Sudarkasa señaló que urgirá a los países africanos a “elevar el impacto combinado que ofrecen esas oportunidades y a implementar los fondos de los donantes de forma de reconocer que la ayuda es un catalizador para mejorar el desarrollo económico y humano”. (FIN)

BUSAN, South Korea, Nov 30, 2011 (IPS) – There are many inspiring stories that delegates from Africa attending the ongoing Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness can take home to provide insights to their respective countries on making the transformation to middle-income economies.

Achieving MDGs through effective aid. Credit:Miriam Gathigah/IPS

Most African countries are in a much better place than the host of the HLF4 was five decades ago. South Korea, now a solid economy, presents an alternative for African countries keen on forming partnerships for better growth.

It was with admiration that delegates heard South Korean President Lee Myung Bak at the opening ceremony recounting the long and bitter-sweet journey that the Koreans took to become a developed country.

That journey involved making painful sacrifices, but it has borne fruit.

“The history of Korea’s economic development and democratisation is one of sweat and tears of ordinary people, who worked hard to escape poverty and dreamed of having decent lives.

“People often ask me what the key to Korea’s success was. Without any hesitation, I say that it was the power of education. Even when they did not have enough food to put on their tables, Korean parents sacrificed everything to educate their children.”

“These children grew up to lead the economic development of Korea,” the President said. “I believe that education is the key to the advancement of individuals, countries, and the world. ”

Moses Dura, a Kenyan aid consultant, hopes that Africa is listening. “Aid is a good idea. It is meant to supplement domestic resources. But in most African countries, political regimes thrive on corruption. In Kenya for instance, there has been a series of corruption allegations in key ministries such as education, water and land.”

Corruption and lack of accountability at the government level is the cancer that is eating into efforts to transform African countries from low to middle-income and make them less dependent on aid.

Hillary Clinton, the United States secretary of state, during the same ceremony, exhorted developing countries to take responsibility and show accountability for the slow place of development.

She said that often money that is set aside for sector budgets is supposed to be supplemented by aid. Unfortunately, “this money is usually allocated to other areas when these countries receive funding.”

Many civil society organisations saw Clinton’s presence as an opportunity to hold the U.S. accountable for its role in the ineffectiveness of aid. Clinton acknowledged that U.S. aid remains tied and cannot be completely free.

This although it is well understood that untied aid is a significant aspect of effectiveness. It means that all the money given as aid goes into the recipient country for development assistance.

“Between 2005 and 2009 we have doubled the percentage of untied aid from 32 to 68 percent. We still need a percentage of aid to remain tied in order to get political support for the budgets that we turn into aid for development assistance,” Clinton explained.

As 2015 beckons, many African countries are hard pressed to make aid work in order to achieve the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) launched in 2000 by a United Nations summit to fight global poverty by accelerating economic and human development.

For those African countries who think it is too late to attain these goals, President Lee had something to say. “When I was a child, Korea was one of the poorest countries in the world. Our per capita GDP stood at less than 100 dollars, and the country was full of people without jobs.

“However, within half-a-century, Korea rebuilt itself, emerging from the ashes of a devastating war and extreme poverty to a vibrant economy and democracy. I firmly believe that the Busan forum will galvanise the world to achieve the MDGs and to make a better world for all.”

Now more than ever, Africa has a great opportunity to achieve significant growth.

Michael Sudarkasa, an expert with the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) says there are new opportunities to mobilise resources through partnerships with China, India and even Brazil. “But Africa needs to have donors follow their countries’ development strategies while giving aid.”

“The private sector in Africa should also play a greater role towards achieving development aims. Investors coming to Africa are looking for strong private sector representatives to form mutually beneficial partnerships,” Sudarkasa said.

Clinton also emphasised the importance of forging partnerships to “help countries that are rich in natural resources escape resources curbs that make them rich in oil and gold but poor in all other ways.”

She said that towards this end the U.S. is already working with African countries such as Ghana and Tanzania, and noted that Brazil is working closely with Mozambique in the agricultural sector since the two countries share similar soil types.

Sudarkasa said he would urge African countries “to enhance the combined impact that all these opportunities for development present and to implement donor funding in a manner that acknowledges that aid is a catalyst to improve human and economic development.”

(END)