Health Policy 94 (2010) 54–60 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Health Policy journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/healthpol Estimation of Japanese international financial assistance for HIV/AIDS control for 2003–2007: Difficulties and limitations of data collection Koichiro Mori a,* , Kiyoshi Yonemoto b , Teiji Takei c , Jose Izazola-Licea c , Benjamin Gobet c a Japan Medical Association Research Institute, 2-28-16 Honkomagome, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8621, Japan b Fukushima National College of Technology, Fukushima, Japan c UNAIDS, Geneva, Switzerland article info Keywords: International financial assistance HIV AIDS Japan Bilateral aid Multilateral aid abstract The purpose of this paper is to: (1) collect relevant data and estimate Japanese international financial assistance for HIV/AIDS control; (2) discuss the difficulties in collecting relevant data and the limitations of the collected data; and (3) conduct a comparative analysis on the estimated data with OECD and Kaiser Family Foundation aggregate data. The point is that we have comprehensively collected and estimated the data on Japanese international expenditures for HIV/AIDS control while there is no reliable data that is totally managed and published. In addition, we discuss the difficulties and limitations of data collection: unpublished data; insufficient data; inseparable data; problems of exchange rates; gaps between disbursement and commitment; and difference in year period among calendar, fiscal and organization-specific years. Furthermore, we show the risk of underestimating the Japanese international contribution to HIV/AIDS control on the basis of OECD and Kaiser data. In this respect, it is significant to comprehensively collect and estimate the data on Japanese international assistance for HIV/AIDS control. Finally, we derive the implication that it is crucial for a relevant international organization and/or individual countries to com- prehensively collect and administer data for international cooperation in the development of health policies for HIV/AIDS. © 2009 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction HIV/AIDS is a serious infectious disease that has spread all over the world. The number of people with HIV is esti- mated to be 33 million people in 2007. In the countries that the HIV epidemic has seriously affected, life expectancy has decreased by more than 20 years. It has slowed economic development and made people poorer. Particularly, in Sub- Saharan Africa, the epidemic has brought about nearly 12 million orphan children aged under 18 years. As a result, the age distribution has been dramatically skewed by HIV, * Corresponding author. Tel.: +81 3 3942 6141; fax: +81 3 3946 2138. E-mail address: k.mori@jmari.med.or.jp (K. Mori). which has enormously damaged social and economic lives in Sub-Saharan Africa. Sub-Saharan Africa has been most heavily affected by HIV, accounting for 67% of all peo- ple living with HIV and for 75% of AIDS deaths in 2007 [1]. Funds for HIV/AIDS control play an important role in preventing the prevalence of HIV nationally, region- ally and globally. However, poor counties that have been viciously affected by the HIV epidemic cannot afford to invest and disburse expenditures for HIV/AIDS control. Therefore, international financial assistance for HIV/AIDS control is considered crucial. In fact, low-income countries such as ones in Sub-Saharan Africa rely on international financial sources for HIV expenditures for the most part (approximately 80%) [1]. Financial assistance has been 0168-8510/$ – see front matter © 2009 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.healthpol.2009.08.008