Financing the Response to HIV in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: International Assistance from Donor Governments in 2015

Annex: Methodology

This project represents a collaboration between the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the Kaiser Family Foundation. Data provided in this report were collected and analyzed by UNAIDS and the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Bilateral and multilateral data on donor government assistance for HIV in low- and middle-income countries were collected from multiple sources.  The research team solicited bilateral assistance data directly, from the governments of Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States during the first half of 2015, representing the fiscal year 2014 period.  Direct data collection from these donors was desirable because the latest official statistics on international HIV specific assistance – from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Creditor Reporting System (CRS) (see: http://www.oecd.org/dac/stats/data) – are from 2013 and do not include all forms of international assistance (e.g., funding to countries such as Russia and the Baltic States that are no longer included in the CRS database).  In addition, the CRS data may not include certain funding streams provided by donors, such as HIV components of mixed grants to non-governmental organizations.  The research team therefore undertook direct data collection from the donors who provide significant shares for international HIV assistance through bilateral channels.

Where donor governments were members of the European Union (EU), the research team ensured that no double-counting of funds occurred between EU Member State reported amounts and EC reported amounts for international HIV assistance. Figures obtained directly using this approach should be considered as the upper bound estimation of financial flows in support of HIV-related activities. Although the Russian Federation is a Member of the G8 and has contributed to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Global Fund), it has also been a net recipient of HIV assistance, and therefore is not included in the donor analysis.

Data for all other member governments of the OECD Development Assistance Committee (DAC) – Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, the European Commission, Finland, Greece, Iceland, Korea, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland – were obtained from the OECD CRS database and UNAIDS records of core contributions. The CRS data are from calendar year 2013, and therefore, do not necessarily reflect 2014 calendar year amounts.  However, collectively, these governments have accounted for less than 5 percent of bilateral disbursements in each of the past several years. UNAIDS core contributions reflect 2014 amounts.

Data included in this report represent funding assistance for HIV prevention, care, treatment and support activities, but do not include funding for international HIV research conducted in donor countries (which is not considered in estimates of resource needs for service delivery of HIV-related activities).

Bilateral funding is defined as any earmarked (HIV-designated) amount, including earmarked (“multi-bi”) contributions to multilateral organizations, such as UNAIDS.  In some cases, donors use policy markers to attribute portions of mixed-purpose projects to HIV.  This is done, for example, by the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, and the U.K. Germany also programs its HIV response in this way, and in 2014, was among top donor countries in the area of health.  Apart from its targeted HIV/AIDS programs, bilateral health programs mainly focusing on health systems strengthening are also designed to contribute to the HIV response in partner countries. Global Fund contributions from all governments correspond to amounts received by the Fund during the 2014 calendar year, regardless of which contributor’s fiscal year such disbursements pertain to. Data from the U.K., Canada, Australia, Denmark, France, Norway and Germany should be considered preliminary estimates.

Bilateral assistance data were collected for disbursements. A disbursement is the actual release of funds to, or the purchase of goods or services for, a recipient.  Disbursements in any given year may include disbursements of funds committed in prior years and in some cases, not all funds committed during a government fiscal year are disbursed in that year. In addition, a disbursement by a government does not necessarily mean that the funds were provided to a country or other intended end-user.

Included in multilateral funding were contributions to the Global Fund (see: http://www.theglobalfund.org/en/) and UNITAID (see: http://www.unitaid.eu/).  All Global Fund contributions were adjusted to represent 55% of the donor’s total contribution, reflecting the Fund’s reported grant approvals for HIV-related projects to date and includes HIV/TB and Health System Strengthening (HSS) funding.  The Global Fund attributes funds received to the years that they were pledged rather than the year of actual receipt. As a result, Global Fund totals presented in this report may differ from those currently available on the Global Fund website. UNITAID contributions were adjusted to represent 49% of the donor’s total contribution, reflecting UNITAID’s reported attribution for HIV-related projects to date.  The entire French contribution to UNITAID as well as a significant part of the French contribution to the Global Fund was derived from air ticket and financial transaction taxes; 5% of total French Global Fund contributions in 2014 was provided in the form of technical assistance supporting implementation of Global Fund grants.

Other than contributions provided by governments to the Global Fund and UNITAID, un-earmarked general contributions to United Nations entities, most of which are membership contributions set by treaty or other formal agreement (e.g., the World Bank’s International Development Association or United Nations country membership assessments), are not identified as part of a donor government’s HIV assistance even if the multilateral organization in turn directs some of these funds to HIV.  Rather, these would be considered as HIV funding provided by the multilateral organization, as in the case of the World Bank’s efforts, and are not considered for purposes of this report.

Data collected directly from the Australian, Canadian, Japanese, U.K., and U.S. governments reflect the fiscal year (FY) period as defined by the donor, which varies by country.  The U.S. fiscal year runs from October 1-September 30. The fiscal years for Canada, Japan, and the U.K. are April 1-March 31.  The Australian fiscal year runs from July 1-June 30.  The European Commission, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden use the calendar year.  The OECD uses the calendar year, so data collected from the CRS for other donor governments reflect January 1-December 31. Most UN agencies use the calendar year and their budgets are biennial.  The Global Fund’s fiscal year is also the calendar year.

All data are expressed in current US dollars (USD), unless otherwise noted.  Where data were provided by governments in their currencies, they were adjusted by average daily exchange rates to obtain a USD equivalent, based on foreign exchange rate historical data available from the U.S. Federal Reserve (see: http://www.federalreserve.gov/) or the OECD.  Data obtained from UNITAID were already adjusted by each to represent a USD equivalent based on date of receipts.  Data on gross domestic product (GDP) were obtained from the International Monetary Fund’s World Economic Outlook Database and represent current price data for 2014 (see: http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2014/01/weodata/index.aspx).  Where data are expressed in constant USD, they were based on analysis of data from the OECD DAC, and account for both inflation and exchange rate differences.

Report Appendix

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