The International Health Partnership, which Gordon Brown has adopted as his first international development
initiative as Prime Minister, could be groundbreaking but only if it attracts sufficient international funding, technical support and political backing, said anti-poverty agency
ActionAid.Flagged as a key policy platform and launching this week (5 September), the Partnership seeks to strengthen the developing world’s health services. It aims to co-ordinate at
country level the aid given to health systems from donor governments and multilateral agencies such as the World Bank and WHO.ActionAid policy officer, Romilly Greenhill believes that better
coordination of aid to health linked to mutual accountability of donors and recipients can only be a good thing. "Getting the process right may not be glamorous but it is essential in order to
make money for health work harder."In addition to country-to-country and multilateral aid, there are more than 80 global ring-fenced health treatment funds in operation. All have their
own ways of working and reporting mechanisms.The pressure on already overstretched health services leads to confusion, overlap and mismanagement. Donors also rarely fund vital areas such as
doctors and nurses salaries - for too long the Cinderella of front-line healthcare.Romilly Greenhill said: "Few countries in the developing world have a coherent vision of what a strong
health system looks like, and currently donor’s health assistance too often cherry picks, encouraging further fragmentation of health services and delivery gaps."Devil in the
detail Yet ActionAid still has concerns about the partnership and highlights key areas that need to be addressed.Some of the major players are missing. More bilateral donors need to
sign up and the UK government should continue to work hard to ensure that big and influential health donors, such as the US government, fully support the initiative.As guardians of the poorest
sections of society, civil society organisations should be involved in a monitoring capacity and given sufficient support to hold health services to account on delivering tangible
results.Another prime consideration should be the role that women play in the community. As frontline carers of the sick, women of all ages often bear the brunt of failing healthcare systems.
The partnership should be seen as an opportunity to redress the balance for the millions who provide life-saving treatment and care. In South Africa, a country with one of the highest HIV and Aids
prevalence rates, a national evaluation of home-based care found 91% of community caregivers were women.Neither should it be forgotten that there are massive funding gaps in aid to health.
Whilst this initiative is primarily about coordinating existing aid better, donors have previously promised more aid and that is not yet forthcoming."Effective coordination at country
level demands complete international and national buy-in and also money, and that is still a long way from being realised," concluded Romilly Greenhill.
[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]
