Across this impoverished continent, aid agencies are doling out big bucks in "allowance" fees and per diems — financial incentives for local health workers, government representatives and others to attend workshops and seminars in countries ravaged by the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Many donors know little about this common but seldom-mentioned practice. If they did, they might be shocked to learn their dollars are being used to lure people who shouldn't need any extra incentives to learn more about the battle against HIV/AIDS.
In Malawi, one of the world's 10 poorest countries, it seems non-governmental organizations have created a monster.

It's a seldom-mentioned fact that many local seminars on battling the epidemic would have few participants if it weren't for the lure of a little extra cash.

"The ones to be trained are the people we're having problems with," says Jones Laviwa, director of Churches in Action for Relief and Development.
"The international NGOs all have money. They came here and spoiled the people and now we have problems. An NGO like this one, we don't have money to dish out to everyone."

It is difficult to get a sense of exactly how much money is being spent since almost no one will talk openly about issuing incentives, but it seems the going rate in Malawi is 1,500 kwachas, about $12 Canadian. It is estimated that more than three-quarters of Malawi's 13 million people live on less than $2 a day.

Lyford Gideon, a financial officer with the Malawi Network of AIDS Services Organization umbrella group, says the per diems are not meant to entice or reward participants; they are simply a matter of hospitality.

Gideon agrees that donors may not know money budgeted for seminars is going to per diems, since they respond to general requests for funds without specific budgets.
Some groups demand receipts before paying, but others will pay 75 per cent of set per diems if participants can't provide paperwork.

A recent training session hosted by Gideon's group saw 20 per cent of the budget go to per diems, amounting to more than $500 for a three-day event involving 25 participants.
Multiply that by the thousands of HIV seminars and AIDS conferences across the continent, and the figure is staggering.

The practice of paying for attendance started innocently enough.
Recognizing that they're working with a population that struggles to simply survive, some NGOs began offering reimbursement for food, accommodation and similar expenses.
No one can say who first offered envelopes of cash in exchange for attendance. The point, observers say, is that now everyone does it.

"If you try to organize an event without it, you will not see anyone," says Enock Phiri, who has worked with World Vision and Population Services International.
Adds Laviwa "People say, 'If you don't give us pocket money, sorry, we're not interested.'"

The practice is certainly not limited to Malawi - in Uganda the fees are called "motivation" - and it's not confined to those in the development sector.
In Ghana, journalists receive a little packet of cash at the end of news conferences, referred to as soli and ostensibly meant to cover travel expenses.

Most infuriating, says Seodi White, national co-ordinator of the Women & Law of Southern Africa Research Trust, are government officials and civil servants. Without allowances, she says, many bureaucrats turn their nose up at seminars that don't pay a little extra, even though they're already being paid by their governments to attend meetings that will help develop policy.

And she says, government meetings usually close with an envelope containing a "sitting fee" - a payment for simply attending. Without the allowances, she scoffs, "Government? You'll never see anybody. “Never."

Churches in Action director Laviwa agrees. "If you want a government person, you have to pay," he says with a rueful shake of his head. The result of all this is that some AIDS workers use training sessions as a lucrative source of income, floating from one workshop to another, shopping around for conferences where participants stand the greatest chance of making a bit of cash. Phiri says there are dire consequences for paying people to attend meetings that could save their communities.

"You are killing development. It was not Malawians who brought this, it was agencies from outside and now our people are hooked on it." Meanwhile, Rose Kumwenda of the Malawi Business Coalition against HIV/AIDS, puts the issue in simple business terms those who attend her training sessions should be doing the paying. "I'm giving expertise and materials," she says. "What are you giving? Why should I pay you?"

Karen Palmer is the Toronto Star's stringer in Africa.