| The US Global AIDS Plan |
Contact: Jennifer Flynn, +1 1-917-517-5202
For Immediate Release – February 16, 2011
With the June 2011 UN high level meeting approaching, and the International AIDS conference set to bring global attention to the U.S. AIDS response next year, AIDS activists noted with disappointment that the President’s budget does not show leadership on global AIDS. Increases to the Global Fund are an important step, but flat-lining of bilateral programs put the future of the AIDS response at risk. The President still has clear opportunities, though, to galvanize the world for a renewed push to end the AIDS crisis.
“Republicans in the House have a plan of program cuts that would sacrifice over a million lives in Africa to AIDS this year. The President hasn’t gone along with that—which is good—but real leadership requires much more,” said Matthew Kavanagh, Director of U.S. Advocacy at Health GAP. “The President can, and must, forcefully reject the strategy of balancing the budget with people’s lives and substitute a bold alternative. He can start by pledging to boldly scale up AIDS treatment, care and prevention programs in a strategy to truly reverse the epidemic and take that to the UN meetings this June to galvanize the world to follow. He can embrace proposals to generate major new global health revenue through a financial transaction tax and other innovative financing mechanisms—ensuring that in a tight budget environment new resources are found to fight a pandemic that is not standing still.”
For Global AIDS President Obama’s FY2012 Budget includes:
- $5.623 billion for bilateral HIV/AIDS programs:
o $139 million less than requested in 2011, $49 million more than was appropriated by congress in 2010.
o In program terms this is a 0.8% increase over 2010 levels—much less than the cost of inflation.
- $1.3 billion for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria:
o $300m more than was requested in 2011, $250 million more than congress approved in 2010.
o This moves the U.S. in the direction of meeting its 3-year, $4bn pledge, though still leaving a major gap in Global Fund financing.
Health GAP calls on the President to:
- Actively fight for the small increases he has included in his budget this year, making this a top priority.
- Support global calls for a tiny tax on financial transactions in order to both reduce deficits and raise needed revenue for domestic and global priorities.
- Set bold new treatment and prevention targets for U.S. global AIDS programs and demand world leaders follow.
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