VOA标准英语2012--Donors Set Health Priorities
时间:2018-12-16 作者:英语课 分类:VOA标准英语2012年(九月)
Donors 2 Set Health Priorities
A new article in PLOS Medicine says large donors have a major influence on which health issues get funded. The author says it’s an attempt by governments and others to exert more control over international agencies.
Oxford 3 University’s Dr. Devi Sridhar says large donors have shifted to a practice called multi-bi financing.
“Multi-bi financing is funds that at first glance look multilateral. They’re given to multilateral agencies. You know, the WHO, the World Bank or new initiatives that look multilateral at the surface, but that actually have more characteristics that are bilateral 4 in that they’re often earmarked. They’re often limited in duration. It’s this new area and it’s been growing. It’s been estimated to account for 40 percent of total multilateral funding,” she said.
Agencies like the World Health Organization are relying more on this type of funding, rather than on a standard annual budget. In fact, Sridhar said almost 80 percent of the WHO’s budget comes from voluntary contributions, which would be classified as multi-bi financing.
“Within the World Health Organization, there have been concerns raised, particularly by developing countries and emerging countries such as Brazil, over how much influence voluntary contributions are having, rather than the assessed budget – what countries are required to pay each year through kind of a U.N. formula,” she said.
Sridhar is a university lecturer in Global Health Politics and co-director of the Center for AIDS Interdisciplinary Research. She said the major donors are the U.S., Britain, Japan, the European Commission and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
“Well, what you get is actually priorities being skewed in a way that perhaps fits the priorities of the donor 1 in question - whether it’s taxpayers 5 - whether it’s the priorities of a particular organization. And it differs from how priorities are set within, let’s say, a body like the World Health Organization, where you have all member states come together in the World Health Assembly to decide collaboratively through deliberation what the priorities should be for the organization. So, in a way, it’s priorities being decided 6 by the few for the many,” she said.
She said it’s also generating debate on how funds should be spent within the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis 7 and Malaria 8. Since the global financial crisis, donors are demanding that projects not only improve health, but be cost-effective, as well.
“So you are seeing much more reliance in actually trying to monitor these international agencies more closely - being able to decide the priorities, to realign them with those of a particular donor," said Sridhar.
Sridhar said one of the main issues is that short-term health concerns might take priority over long term objectives.
“Part of the rationale for creating the World Health Organization was that countries would compromise their short term differences in order to obtain the long term benefits of collaboration," she said. "For example, international health regulations, which require countries to report on, let’s say, disease outbreaks in their country. It’s not necessarily in the short term interest of a country to do that, but it’s in the long term collective interest of the global community for this to happen.”
She said when large donors set health priorities, input 9 from technocrats 10 – such as public health experts, economists 11 and lawyers – may not be included in discussions. Also, many of the new initiatives are funded by the private sector 12, such as pharmaceutical 13 companies. The question arises as to how much influence the private sector should wield 14.
“How actually do we include these powerful stakeholders, but in a way that controls conflict of interest? And make sure that actually public health is the primary concern – not opening new markets or profit motives,” she said.
But Sridhar did say that multi-bi financing “has shown a light on how and where multilateral institutions might do better” and bring about reforms.
- In these cases,the recipient usually takes care of the donor afterwards.在这类情况下,接受捐献者以后通常会照顾捐赠者。
- The Doctor transplanted the donor's heart to Mike's chest cavity.医生将捐赠者的心脏移植进麦克的胸腔。
- Please email us to be removed from our active list of blood donors. 假如你想把自己的名字从献血联系人名单中删去,请给我们发电子邮件。
- About half this amount comes from individual donors and bequests. 这笔钱大约有一半来自个人捐赠及遗赠。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
- This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London.这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。
- They have been negotiating a bilateral trade deal.他们一直在商谈一项双边贸易协定。
- There was a wide gap between the views of the two statesmen on the bilateral cooperation.对双方合作的问题,两位政治家各自所持的看法差距甚大。
- Finance for education comes from taxpayers. 教育经费来自纳税人。
- She was declaiming against the waste of the taxpayers' money. 她慷慨陈词猛烈抨击对纳税人金钱的浪费。
- This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
- There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。
- People used to go to special health spring to recover from tuberculosis.人们常去温泉疗养胜地治疗肺结核。
- Tuberculosis is a curable disease.肺结核是一种可治愈的病。
- He had frequent attacks of malaria.他常患疟疾。
- Malaria is a kind of serious malady.疟疾是一种严重的疾病。
- I will forever be grateful for his considerable input.我将永远感激他的大量投入。
- All this information had to be input onto the computer.所有这些信息都必须输入计算机。
- Few business barons remained. They were replaced by "technocrats," who became the heads of corporations. 企业巨头所剩无几,大多已被“技术专家”所代替,这些人成了公司的领导。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件
- However, bankers called the technocrats' bluff and proceeded to lend with gusto. 但是,银行家们称技术专家官员不过在虚张声势,并且还会乐观的继续借贷业务。 来自互联网
- The sudden rise in share prices has confounded economists. 股价的突然上涨使经济学家大惑不解。
- Foreign bankers and economists cautiously welcomed the minister's initiative. 外国银行家和经济学家对部长的倡议反应谨慎。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
- The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。
- She has donated money to establish a pharmaceutical laboratory.她捐款成立了一个药剂实验室。
- We are engaged in a legal tussle with a large pharmaceutical company.我们正同一家大制药公司闹法律纠纷。