International donor agencies willing to give P2.5 B for fight vs bird flu

International donor agencies have expressed willingness to contribute to a P2.5-billion supplementary budget needed for the Avian Influenza Prevention Program (AIPP) of the National Avian Influenza Task Force (NAITF), provided the government creates a mechanism to ensure funds coming in would not be misused.

In a donors’ meeting organized recently by the Department of Agriculture (DA) to raise badly-needed funds for the AIPP, representatives of funding agencies said that while there was a commitment made by the international community at the Beijing conference held earlier this month to provide funding support to countries not only affected by the bird flu virus, but also to countries preparing to battle the dreaded disease, there is concern about accountability and transparency in the management of such funds.

Donor agencies represented in the meeting included the World Bank, Japan Bank for International Cooperation, World Health Organization (WHO), European Union, New Zealand AID, United States Agency for International Development and United Nations Children’s Fund.

An official of WHO told the DA and Bureau of Animal Industry that it wanted to know who at the NAITF would handle cash contributions and if the task force had an auditing or accountability structure to make sure funds would be properly spent.

Apparently wary of the government’s ability to guarantee that donated money would not be mishandled, the agencies said they preferred to donate in kind such as providing necessary equipment to the NAITF.

The DA is exploring other ways to fund its P2.5-billion AIPP because it is having difficulty convincing Congress to approve the budget.

BAI Director Davinio Catbagan said the P2.5-billion budget is critical to putting in place necessary structures that would make its field offices battle-ready if, or when, a bird flu outbreak does occur.

"They (Congress) just have to approve it, the money will be there, it is solely dedicated to the program’s regulatory measures and most will only be used anyway when an outbreak sets in because we have the initial facilities already in place," said Catbagan.

Aside from establishing diagnostic laboratories and training of personnel in the detection of the bird flu virus, more money is needed to strengthen the surveillance capability of BAI personnel, not only on domestic and imported poultry and exotic birds, but more importantly, on migratory birds.