Reuters Examines Challenges of Tracking Financial Donations to AIDS Organizations in Africa

Reuters on Thursday examined the challenges of tracking financial donations to nongovernmental organizations dedicated to fighting HIV/AIDS in Africa. There are thousands of NGOs in the region, and it is "unclear" how much money they have received and how the money has been spent, according to Reuters. Some of the funding is misspent and never reaches those who need it most, but the "main concern" is that the amount of funding NGOs receive is insufficient, Reuters reports. Large, well-known NGOs receive the largest share of funding, leaving smaller, community-based organizations -- which often provide services for vulnerable groups such as orphans -- with little or nothing. The main sources of funding for NGOs conducting HIV/AIDS work in Africa are the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and the Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, although the latter provides most of its fund to governments that then distribute the money. Foreign affairs specialists Curt Tarnoff and Larry Nowels, in a study of U.S. foreign aid spending written for Congress, said that most of the money never leaves the country of origin. "At least 60% of U.S. funding never leaves the U.S., but instead is spent on office overheads, travel, procurement of American-made cars, computers ... as well as salary and benefit packages," the authors said (Macharia, Reuters, 10/13).

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