JOHANNESBURG: Where have the billions of dollars poured into Africa to fight Aids gone? A lot of this money is channelled through non-governmental organizations (NGOs) mainly to pay for life-prolonging drugs and education campaigns on a continent where many national healthcare systems are broke and in tatters.

Donors increasingly prefer to fund NGOs rather than African governments, many of which are seen as corrupt. But because the NGOs number in the thousands, it is unclear how much money they have received or how it was used.

“The trail of donor money is as clear as mud,” said Annabel Kanabus, director of UK Aids charity Avert.

The United Nations Aids agency, UNAIDS, says sub-Saharan Africa has just over 10 per cent of the world’s population but is home to more than 60 per cent of all people living with HIV.

UNAIDS estimates that $8.3 billion will be available to fight Aids globally from all sources in 2005. Although this is up from $6.1 billion in 2004, when the US alone gave $2.7 billion, it will leave a $4 billion shortfall, it says.

Even though some cash appears to have been misused, the main concern is that most of the money given so far has simply not been enough, and much of it does not reach those most in need.

“Too little of this money is currently reaching community initiatives,” Geoff Foster, a child health expert in Zimbabwe said in a report for the charity Save the Children.—Reuters