Welcome! The Green Monstah, as most know her, is the infamous 37-foot left field wall at Fenway Park, home of my beloved Boston Red Sox. In an effort to share my current research into global financing of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, I introduce to you another Green Monstah:
As many of you know, despite our existing medical technologies and abundant resources, HIV/AIDS continues to ravage our world, particularly in resource-poor communities where social and medical services are disturbingly absent.
The rich of our world have certainly been contributing to financing and end to AIDS. The most impressive contributions have come from bilateral aid, particularly through the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Multi-lateral donors like the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Malaria, and Tuberculosis (Global Fund), and UN agencies, particularly the World Bank, have also contributed significantly.
But HIV - preventable and treatable - continues to infect and kill, and in many places, at increasing rates. Are we not spending enough, or are we spending on the wrong things? Why are we not reversing bad investments, trivial spending, poor monitoring and evaluation? Is AIDS really too difficult to defeat? Or are we just using too many dollars and not enough sense?
In my work in Ghana, Tanzania, and South Africa I have witnessed many successful localized programs that are eliminating AIDS against intimidating odds. For example, Keep a Child Alive funds the "Blue Roof Clinic", in alarmingly 41% infected Wentworth, Durban. KCA funds top-quality, comprehensive care for FREE including voluntary counseling and testing (VCT), anti-retroviral (ARV) treatment, adherence counseling for medications, home-based care, alcohol and drug abuse counseling, psychosocial support, nutritional counseling and food assistance. With 1,340 patients on file and 358 patients on comprehensive ARV treatment in one year, the success and popularity of the Blue Roof model is forecasting an additional 200 patients per quarter in 2008.
Not quite 'saving the world', but making significant progress in one community. Is scaling grassroots efforts up and out a more sensible option than 8-figure donations to national governments?
Many successful programs I have witnessed do not receive PEPFAR and Global Fund money, which are often (or exclusively, for PEPFAR) channelled through recipient national governments before disbursement, rather than given straight to actors on the ground. I will reference and reflect on more experiences as I work my way into new territory - exploring the origins, direction, and use of massive AIDS aid.
Many infected and affected people I have met in Africa and America have referred to AIDS as an absolute "monster". However I am tempted to think it is not AIDS that is the monster, but rather our foreign aid system; a Green Monstah that keeps our potential home-run efforts from making it over the wall.
I aim to follow 'the green' to figure out how to best use our resources to end AIDS. How can we break down the paradox of more aid not resulting in less AIDS. Should we be giving more money or less? To which countries? For what purposes? Where have we found success and where have we failed? Can my Millenial generation really end this pandemic? How?
I invite you to join me on my journey. I encourage you to respond to posts with questions and comments, to share relevant articles and research, and to take action in some way to participate in a solution.
Thanks for joining in - and Happy 2008!
As many of you know, despite our existing medical technologies and abundant resources, HIV/AIDS continues to ravage our world, particularly in resource-poor communities where social and medical services are disturbingly absent.
The rich of our world have certainly been contributing to financing and end to AIDS. The most impressive contributions have come from bilateral aid, particularly through the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Multi-lateral donors like the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Malaria, and Tuberculosis (Global Fund), and UN agencies, particularly the World Bank, have also contributed significantly.
But HIV - preventable and treatable - continues to infect and kill, and in many places, at increasing rates. Are we not spending enough, or are we spending on the wrong things? Why are we not reversing bad investments, trivial spending, poor monitoring and evaluation? Is AIDS really too difficult to defeat? Or are we just using too many dollars and not enough sense?
In my work in Ghana, Tanzania, and South Africa I have witnessed many successful localized programs that are eliminating AIDS against intimidating odds. For example, Keep a Child Alive funds the "Blue Roof Clinic", in alarmingly 41% infected Wentworth, Durban. KCA funds top-quality, comprehensive care for FREE including voluntary counseling and testing (VCT), anti-retroviral (ARV) treatment, adherence counseling for medications, home-based care, alcohol and drug abuse counseling, psychosocial support, nutritional counseling and food assistance. With 1,340 patients on file and 358 patients on comprehensive ARV treatment in one year, the success and popularity of the Blue Roof model is forecasting an additional 200 patients per quarter in 2008.
Not quite 'saving the world', but making significant progress in one community. Is scaling grassroots efforts up and out a more sensible option than 8-figure donations to national governments?
Many successful programs I have witnessed do not receive PEPFAR and Global Fund money, which are often (or exclusively, for PEPFAR) channelled through recipient national governments before disbursement, rather than given straight to actors on the ground. I will reference and reflect on more experiences as I work my way into new territory - exploring the origins, direction, and use of massive AIDS aid.
Many infected and affected people I have met in Africa and America have referred to AIDS as an absolute "monster". However I am tempted to think it is not AIDS that is the monster, but rather our foreign aid system; a Green Monstah that keeps our potential home-run efforts from making it over the wall.
I aim to follow 'the green' to figure out how to best use our resources to end AIDS. How can we break down the paradox of more aid not resulting in less AIDS. Should we be giving more money or less? To which countries? For what purposes? Where have we found success and where have we failed? Can my Millenial generation really end this pandemic? How?
I invite you to join me on my journey. I encourage you to respond to posts with questions and comments, to share relevant articles and research, and to take action in some way to participate in a solution.
Thanks for joining in - and Happy 2008!
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