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Neil Colligan
Name: Neil Colligan
Background: Venture Capitalist, Doughty Hanson & Co.
VSO role: Fund and Project Manager, HIV and AIDS Prevention and Control Office, Awassa
Neil left his job working for one of the largest private equity firms in Europe in order to volunteer with VSO. He wanted to use his business and finance skills in a different way; working with local colleagues from a developing country in the fight against HIV and AIDS.
In Ethiopia the HIV infection level is among the highest in Africa, damaging the country's economic potential and creating social problems. Three million people are living with the virus and more than half those infected are women (1.6 million). The organisation in which Neil worked has an annual budgeted fund of $6.4million to help in the fight against HIV and AIDS; most of which is received from international donors. These funds are distributed to local non-governmental organisations (NGO's) and community groups that work to raise awareness of prevention, treatment and advocacy for people living with HIV and AIDS.
Despite this significant budget, when Neil arrived in Awassa under one percent ($50,000) a year was being distributed to just 10 local organisations. Staff lacked the knowledge and skills to manage the funds. There was nobody to appraise the proposals and no system to evaluate and monitor projects. Neil helped train local staff to appraise project proposals and set up systems to fund and monitor them.
Two years on, 170 organisations are benefiting from international donor funds. However, there is still potential to do better. In this time the office has still only been able to access $1.4 million of a possible $12.8 million, due in the main to the perception of donors about lack of ability to manage funds and delays in reporting on funds already used.
Neil comments:
This perception stems from poor manpower skills in areas such as needs assessment, project planning and monitoring and evaluation. With improved management systems and better quality of training, existing funds could be used more effectively.
Neil's work marks part of a continuing journey in enabling governments and local NGO's in sub-Saharan Africa to access and channel international aid into the fight against HIV and AIDS.
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