| The US Global AIDS Plan |
AIDS & Rights Alliance of Southern Africa | Health GAP (Global Access Project)
International Treatment Preparedness Coalition | Treatment Action Group
US GLOBAL AIDS PROGRAM AT RISK OF DWINDLING UNDER NEW LEADERSHIP
Advocates Concerned that Obama's White House is Sending the Wrong Message
on Global Health Challenges Despite Address at UN
28 Sep 2009
Capetown: Paula Akugizibwe, paula@arasa.info. Tel: +27 83 627 1317
Washington: Matthew Kavanagh, matthew@healthgap.org, 202.486.2488
Sue Perez, sue.perez@treatmentactiongroup.org, 202.615.8831
Washington DC-- As President Obama headed from the UN General Assembly meetings in NY to the G-20 in Pittsburgh last week, AIDS and health advocates today voiced their concern that, despite remarkable PEPFAR program successes and a bipartisan commitment in 2008 to dramatically scale up PEPFAR program targets and funding, the Obama administration is backing off support for the fight against AIDS. President Obama highlighted the US' commitment of $63 billion towards global AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria programs but did not point out that this 6 year budget budget line was actually a reduction from previous allocations.
Organizations from Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas delivered a letter to U.S. Ambassador Eric Goosby, head of global AIDS programs, asking that the U.S. recommit to promises made by both President Obama and his predecessor to reach Universal Access to AIDS treatment, prevention and care. These promises were recently cast into doubt by the flat-lining of U.S. funding for AIDS in the FY2010 budget put forward by the administration and when Dr. Goosby was quoted last week saying that Universal Access “unrealistic.”[1] While President Obama pledged billions for Global Health and stated his support for the Millennium Development Goals at the UN, advocates worry the funding plan would actually trade off planned AIDS funding for other priorities rather than truly expanding support.[2]
Netsayi Dzinoreva, member of the Southern African Treatment Activist Movement, Zimbabwe said, "The resources can be found--but HIV is not being prioritized. Donors are trying to run away from their responsibilities, and this is made worse by the lack of accountability at national level. If PEPFAR does not honor its commitments to universal access, more people will continue dying unnecessarily of manageable infections; and to make matters worse, this will hold back economic development in Zimbabwe and elsewhere, as breadwinners are often affected.”
"As an experienced clinician, Dr. Goosby clearly understands the life and death implications of PEPFAR funding and policy decisions," said Dr. Jennifer Cohn of Health GAP. “For less than 1% of what’s been spent to bail out banks this year, the U.S. can do its part to ensure AIDS treatment for all. We call on the administration to reaffirm their commitment to Universal Access to treatment and make that real by funding it in next year’s budget."
As Presidential candidates then-Senators Obama, Clinton, and Biden all pledged to work toward the international goal of Universal Access to treatment set by the G8 and United Nations member states. This included a promise to “provide at least $50 billion by 2013 for the global fight against HIV/AIDS, including our fair share of the Global Fund, in order to at least double the number of HIV-positive people on treatment and continue to provide treatment to one-third of all those who desperately need them.”[3]
The PEPFAR program has helped galvanize the push to ensure that people do not die in the Global South without access to the drugs and services that keep millions in wealthy countries alive. Yet with only 1/3 of those in immediate need able to access these drugs and a flat-lined global AIDS budget in 2010 activists worry that the administration is deciding not to make good on its pledges.
The letter sent today, authored by activists in Southern Africa, also calls on PEPFAR to work in closer partnership with civil society in countries that are recipients of US funding, so as to ensure efficient and accountable use of these funds at the national level.
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[1] Inter Press Service, http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48425
[2]See: http://results.techriver.net/website/navdispatch.asp?id=3959
[3] Obama/Biden www.barackobama.com/pdf/issues/FactSheetAIDS.pdf See also Global AIDS Alliance Fund, http://www.globalaidsalliance.org/index.php/c4_site/interior/2008_candidate_pledges
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