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HIV/AIDS Donors and Africa’s Health Workforce: Nandini Oomman
September 8, 2010
My guest this week is Nandini Oomman, Director of the Center for Global Development’s HIV/AIDS Monitor. Her team has just released a new report, Zeroing In: AIDS Donors and Africa’s Health Workforce, which looks at how AIDS programs could be better designed to strengthen the capacity of nurses and doctors in developing countries. On the Wonkcast, Nandini and I discuss the report, and also explore the overall lessons learned from the HIV/AIDS Monitor, which is wrapping up its country based work this year after four years of operation.
The new report identifies six ways AIDS donors could minimize the negative spillover effects major donor HIV/AIDS programs can have on health systems in recipient countries, and move away from temporary and AIDS-specific interventions. Until now, Nandini explains, donors have adopted an emergency response approach to AIDS, putting a priority on training a large number of health workers specifically to provide HIV/AIDS treatment (and, to a lesser extent, work on HIV prevention).
“So you then have a situation where it’s a weak health workforce and all the workers you would normally use to respond to a broader set of health priorities are focused and incentivized to perform on an AIDS treatment program,” says Nandini.
By focusing instead on the sustainable, long-term development of health workers with a broad range of skills, Nandini says, donor programs could treat AIDS while also fostering positive health outcomes across the board.
Under Nandini’s direction, the HIV/AIDS Monitor forged new ground at CGD. Much of our research seeks fresh policy solutions to specific problems. In contrast, the HIV/AIDS Monitor examined the policies and practices of three very large donor programs—the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria, and the World Bank MAP—which together spend billions of dollars annually, and offered concrete suggestions for improvements.
To understand how the donors operate on the ground—in particular where and how the money was being spent and what effect it was having—Nandini’s team in Washington collaborated with local researchers in three aid recipient countries–Mozambique, Uganda, and Zambia.
One legacy of the Monitor, Nandini explains, is the wealth of information it has generated on donor programs—information that simply wasn’t available just a few years ago. “When we started, we had no data,” Nandini tells me. “When we went to the countries, our researchers had to seek out donors and their own governments to get data, and this was a very difficult thing.” In Uganda, for example, the work of the in-country Monitor teams inspired the government to launch its own effort to track donor spending and to press for more effective assistance.
Listen to the Wonkcast, then write to me to tell me what you think, or post a comment below. If you use iTunes, I invite you to subscribe to get a new episode delivered to your computer every week.
My thanks to Wren Elhai for his very able production assistance on the Wonkcast recording and for drafting this blog post.
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4 Responses to “HIV/AIDS Donors and Africa’s Health Workforce: Nandini Oomman”
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September 10th, 2010 at 10:24 am
I think that this is a good thing.
October 5th, 2010 at 8:12 am
aim a Kenyan social worker and a Kenyan citizen i work with people infected with HIV/aids but i have one problem and is that donors tend to take so long before they fund programs to deal with HIV/aids making so many people die because of lack of drugs and medical facilities,we appreciate them so much but if the duration to qualify may be shorter it may be better thank you
October 11th, 2010 at 7:53 am
Goodday to the world,
I’m looking at the HIV/AIDS world situation and do not understand what the givers are doing, throwing money around just to please a couple of HIV patient. what happened to all the wisdom people brsgging about. I mean educated people. I have a bussines called Central Lake Trading & TOKS Teach Our Kids Safety. I have decided add a another branch onto the bussines to help people with HIV/AIDS, remember i’m willing to start a fountain (bussines)no fountain no water. If financial suppoters are willing to invest in a a bussines to support HIV/ AIDS patients, i’m willing to take it much further.
December 22nd, 2010 at 8:40 am
Lets share our love with our children who were left by their beloved parent because of the HIV.Remember these kids suffer the pain of being HIV positive yet very innocent.I would request donors to donate to our organization to help give these kids hope to live happily.Lets answer the children s cry the same Jesus felt when the disciples rebuked them bu he said let them come to me.Write to me if you have the feeling to donate.Thank you.