Progress in Fight Against Malaria, AIDS Result of Increased Focus on Accountability, Editorial Says

There was "progress" in 2006 in global efforts to combat malaria and AIDS because of "some new thinking about how foreign aid can best be spent," a Wall Street Journal editorial says. The White House Summit on Malaria last month focused on the need for accountability in the fight against malaria, and although the emphasis on transparency and accountability should be "obvious," the issue has "long been neglected by aid organizations ... and has led to such travesties as the conscious distribution of ineffective antimalarial drugs," the editorial says. The global fight against AIDS also has been "distinguished" by a focus on accountability, according to the editorial. For example, the U.S. global AIDS bureaucracy now has a standard funding and administrative approach, and the U.S. insists on regular reporting requirements from its foreign partners, according to the Journal. Although progress against HIV/AIDS is not "close enough to save every" HIV-positive person, the Bush administration is showing in its campaigns to control AIDS and malaria that "a well-managed effort can save millions from an early grave," the editorial concludes (Wall Street Journal, 12/29/06).

A kaisernetwork.org webcast of the White House Summit on Malaria is available online.