[afro-nets] AllAfrica.com: Allocate 15 Percent of Budget to Health, African Govts Told (2)

["Peter Burgess" <peterbnyc@gmail.com>]

Dear Colleagues

I read this and was immediately struck by the Catch 22 for Africa's future.

What is the cause of poor health ... poverty and not enough money ...what is the cause of poverty and not enough money ... poor health ...etc.

What is it going to take to get out of this vicious cycle?

In my past, I learned some Keynesian economics ... and specifically I learned about the multiplier effect and the role money cycling through the economy in producing a good impact over and over again.

Micro-credit puts money into a community ... and it recycles not only because it is repaid but also because the community gets the benefit of the multiplier.

Expenditure on health does not have a multiplier effect ... unless the impact of better health is more economic productivity ... this is more about adult morbidity than about child mortality. Thus, malaria money that reduces child mortality is morally positive but economically not very important ... while malaria money that reduces adult morbidity may have quite important productivity impact and ultimately a multiplier impact.

15% of the national budget going to health may be a good idea ... or it may not. It depends what is going to be short-changed because of the reallocation of resources. If it comes from guns and ammunition and landmines ... the reallocation may be positive. If it comes from education or infrastructure it may be negative. These blanket goals are, in my experience, largely counterproductive, though popular with conference organizers and presenters.

Perhaps more critical to progress is thinking about spending available money 15% more effectively ... or even 150% more effectively.

Also critical is to start to address the chronic dysfunctionality of the African economic scene. It is an aberration that a continent that is so rich in natural resources can be home to so many poor people ... as Dr. Yunus has observed ... the poor people are not poor because they don't work or don't want to work ... the system is flawed and they work hard for no benefit.

The question is how is the system flawed, and what can be done about it.

My view of this problem is that almost every initiative in support of "development" ends up being value destruction for Africa when it should be value creating ... and then getting the multiplier effect. Sadly ... there are no metrics that have ever been deployed that get to look at development performance in this manner. Hopefully this will change in the near future, and my own efforts in this regard are finding expression in a new Community Impact Accountancy (CIA) system that address not only the costs of development, but the changes that development accomplishes. CIA also addresses issues like the value chains where international investment results in both local benefit and international benefit ... and starts to put metrics accessible to the public ... accessible at community level ... around these matters.

If anyone is interested in CIA ... please let me know off-line

Sincerely

Peter Burgess

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Peter Burgess
The Transparency and Accountability Network: Tr-Ac-Net in New York
http://www.tr-ac-net.org
IMMC - The Integrated Malaria Management Consortium Inc.
The Tr-Ac-Net blogs ... start at http://tracnetvision.blogspot.com
+1 917 432 1191 or +1 212 772 6918 
mailto:peterbnyc@gmail.com