[afro-nets] Fighting Malaria - the right way (4)

[Peter Burgess <Profitinafrica@aol.com>]

Fighting Malaria - the right way (4)
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Dear Colleagues

Recent announcements by USAID have indeed been better than some
of the announcements that have been made in the past... but I
would hesitate to label how USAID plans to move forward with its
'malaria' initiatives as being the 'right' way.

I always get upset when I see remarks like 'The agency has opted
to streamline more funding to fewer countries in order to im-
prove accountability and focus on results...' pray tell me what
has fewer countries got to do with improving accountability and
having a focus on results. The problem is that a program to ad-
dress a huge problem is getting almost no funding. The only num-
ber referred to in the article is $15 million... for insecti-
cides rather than high prices consultancies which is progress.
But in the larger scheme of things $15 million is not much for a
global program... OOPS... I forgot, only funding fewer coun-
tries.

Tr-Ac-Net is working on a database about relief and develop-
ment... and as the database starts to get populated with infor-
mation, it is becoming interesting to see how little the offi-
cial relief and development assistance (ORDA) community is
really doing. It is no wonder that the result of decades of re-
lief and development assistance is rather puny... hardly any-
thing of value has ever been funded... though a lot has been an-
nounced.

There is a right way to address the malaria problem... it should
be done in the lowest cost manner possible, using the best pos-
sible science (chemical, entomological and medical) and with a
focus on results. Practical people have a good idea what would
be a good starting point, and then improvements can be made as
on the ground experience is obtained and performance optimised.

I would love USAID to prove me wrong. I would love for them to
implement a big practical program using the best possible prac-
tices... but I am not betting on it happening.

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