Big donors distort health services in developing countries

A report by a USA-based think-tank, the Center for Global Development, has criticized the recent emergence of major aid donors because the scale of their inputs into developing countries, whilst intended to help them cope with HIV/AIDS, has created harmful distortions to local heath care systems.

The three largest aid donors are the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (which was only recently renewed and expanded; Marketletter August 4) and the World Bank's Multi-country AIDS Program (MAP). Since 2000, these three agencies alone have spent $20.0 billion.

Nandini Oomman, the lead author of the study, warned: "the big HIV donors are creating AIDS-specific systems that compete for health workers and administrative effort, share the same inadequate infrastructure and further complicate already complex flows of information."