Email this to a friend   Print this story

The UN agencies that sponsor Aids programmes say they will no longer direct funds to non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in some sub-Saharan states because they lacked accountability.

NGOs today called the move retrogressive, saying it would harm efforts to fight the epidemic in a region where some 26.6 million people are estimated to be infected with the deadly HIV virus or have full-blown Aids.

Koichiro Matsuura, who chairs the funding committee for UNAids, the UN agency that leads the fight against the epidemic, said the UN agencies endorsed yesterday a proposal by Zambia and Zimbabwe to stop channelling Aids funds to NGOs because they lacked accountability.

"Aids money will no longer be given to NGOs. This is what the countries have proposed and it has been endorsed. The money will only be channelled through the governments' central authorities dealing with Aids," said Matsuura, after a two-day ministerial conference on how to accelerate the campaign against Aids in Africa in the Zambian town of Livingstone.


UN to stop funding NGOs in sub-Saharan Aids fight

March 06, 2004, 13:49

The UN agencies that sponsor Aids programmes say they will no longer direct funds to non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in some sub-Saharan states because they lacked accountability.

NGOs today called the move retrogressive, saying it would harm efforts to fight the epidemic in a region where some 26.6 million people are estimated to be infected with the deadly HIV virus or have full-blown Aids.

Koichiro Matsuura, who chairs the funding committee for UNAids, the UN agency that leads the fight against the epidemic, said the UN agencies endorsed yesterday a proposal by Zambia and Zimbabwe to stop channelling Aids funds to NGOs because they lacked accountability.

"Aids money will no longer be given to NGOs. This is what the countries have proposed and it has been endorsed. The money will only be channelled through the governments' central authorities dealing with Aids," said Matsuura, after a two-day ministerial conference on how to accelerate the campaign against Aids in Africa in the Zambian town of Livingstone.

Move supported by other nations
The move was supported by fellow African nations Lesotho, Swaziland, Botswana and Namibia and will also be introduced there, said Matsuura, who is also the director general of the UN Educational and Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

"The consequences of this retrogressive move will be grave to the fight against Aids. There is too much bureaucracy in government institutions," said Clement Mufuzi, the national coordinator of the Zambian NGO the Network of People Living with HIV (NZP+).

Some donor groups and Aids activists have complained that only a small part of international funding is spent on medicine or care programmes, with most going towards the salaries and allowances of both public and NGO bureaucrats. The UN's World Health Organisation has said it intends to provide Aids drugs worth $5.5 billion to three million people in poorer countries between 2004 and 2005. - Reuters