Donor money for health care in developing countries could be spent more effectively if it were channeled through a single global fund

Donor money for health care in developing countries could be spent more effectively if it were channeled through a single global fund, experts said Friday.A steady flow of funds is essential for health sector improvements, Gorik Ooms from Belgium’s Institute of Tropical Medicine said.

Research by Ooms and other experts published in The Lancet medical journal Friday said the amount and regularity of international aid was often unpredictable, making it hard for governments to plan ahead.Another study, by Harvard Medical School and the University of Washington, found that in some recipient countries, mainly in sub-Saharan Africa, foreign health aid was partly replacing — not supplementing — domestic health budgets.

In such countries, for every $1 given in aid, governments move between 43 cents and $1.14 of their own health funds to other sectors, such as education or sanitation.”Governments compensate for exceptional international generosity to the health sector by reallocating government funding to other sectors,” Ooms wrote in The Lancet.He said governments also compensated for the unreliability of aid by spreading it over several years.One way to make health aid more stable would be to disburse it via a common pool, similar to the Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria set up in 2002.

“If a young institution such as the Global Fund already stands out as delivering stable and predictable financing, it shows the potential advantage of pooling international aid,” Ooms wrote.In a news briefing, he said countries with high dependency on aid usually received pledges from donors for two to four years ahead.”When we in our own countries consider reforming health care, we make estimates for 20, 30, 40 years ahead: how much money will we have? what will happen with the population? what will be the health needs?,” he said.

Another issue is donors’ delivery on their promises.Madalo Nyambose, assistant director at the debt and aid division in Malawi’s Finance Ministry, said aid money was often disbursed later than promised, forcing recipient governments to borrow from financial markets and incur interest payments.

Ooms said a new global health fund could borrow ideas from the Global Fund, which pools donors’ money and allocates it in consultation with the countries in need and independent experts. Its board includes representatives of donors and recipient governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), businesses and affected communities.The U.S. researchers examined data on 113 developing countries from 1995 to 2006.(Reuters)

Madonna laid the first brick of her new girls' academy near Malawi's capital Tuesday

LILONGWE, Malawi Madonna laid the first brick of her new girls’ academy near Malawi’s capital Tuesday, in which she encouraged Malawian girls to “dare to dream,” according to the inscription on the brick.The pop star said it has long been her dream to build a girls’ school. She said she hopes the girls attending the academy will go on to become doctors, lawyers and future leaders of their country.The $15 million Raising Malawi Academy for Girls is scheduled to open in 2011, and will assist 500 orphaned children.

At the same event, Madonna also launched a telecommunications and fundraising initiative that aims to provide education to children around the world by offering secondary school scholarships and by supporting schools in developing countries in accessing the internet.”Kids will be able to connect with kids from the other parts of the world,” the singer said. “This will promote peace throughout the world.”Telecommunications giant Ericsson will donate computers to various schools in 11 African countries through the United Nations Millennium Village initiative, where model villages are established to demonstrate how the quality of life in African rural areas can be improved through community-led development.Daughters Lourdes and Mercy accompanied Madonna to Tuesday’s ceremony.

The pop diva looked relaxed as she used a trowel to turn the earth. She wore a long-sleeved striped top, white cotton slacks, a patterned scarf and pale ballet flats. She also wore a black-banded straw hat and dark sunglasses on the sunny day.Madonna arrived in Malawi on Monday for a weeklong charity tour to inspect projects she established since her first visit in 2006 while filming a documentary on its devastating poverty and AIDS crisis.Madonna has adopted two Malawian children, David Banda and Mercy Chifundo James, both four. She also funds six Malawian orphanages, which feed, clothe and educate some 25,000 orphans. (AP)