AFRO-NETS> More Than Words to Fight AIDS

[Claudio Schuftan <aviva@netnam.vn>]

More Than Words to Fight AIDS
-----------------------------

December 16, 2002
More Than Words to Fight AIDS

Earlier this month Colin Powell and Tommy Thompson gathered represen-
tatives from 86 countries to lecture them on the importance of po-
litical leadership in fighting AIDS. Make AIDS a global priority, 
said Secretary of State Powell. Invest in global health, implored 
Health Secretary Thompson. Their message was important and well timed 
- but should have been directed at Washington.

The administration is not blind to the catastrophe. The president and 
his top officials speak about AIDS in the most apocalyptic terms, and 
Mr. Powell called the disease a more important challenge than terror-
ism. But when it comes to financing, urgency vanishes. Mr. Bush is 
likely to visit Africa next month. He should be carrying with him an 
AIDS initiative backed with real money.

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has just 
started to give out its first grants and is already broke. As Wash-
ington and other donors demanded, the fund has designed a rigorous 
process and has received dozens of well-designed proposals to fight 
disease. But it must now tell countries there is no money to finance 
them. The administration makes much of the fact that the United 
States, which has pledged $500 million over two years, is the largest 
donor. But when measured by the size of the economy, it is actually 
giving half as much as Europe. Washington's contribution needs to be 
$2.5 billion a year to make a difference.

The administration's showpiece program on AIDS this year was an ini-
tiative to combat the transmission of the disease from mothers to ba-
bies. That has only served to undercut a better proposal within Con-
gress. Mr. Bush's plan superseded a Senate proposal, backed by Jesse 
Helms, that would have spent $500 million on these programs. Then the 
president vetoed the appropriation containing the first year's pay-
ment. Politicians lament the tragedy of babies with AIDS, but their 
concern has so far produced not a cent of new money. And shamefully, 
on the last day of the Congressional session, Senate Republicans 
killed a bill agreed on unanimously in the House and Senate that 
would have provided $4 billion over two years to fight global AIDS.

Administration officials and members of Congress argue that there are 
other things to spend money on. None are more urgent. The Central In-
telligence Agency is warning that AIDS in China, India and Russia, as 
well as in Africa, is a mounting security threat for the United 
States. AIDS is already destabilizing Africa. It is a major cause of 
a hunger crisis now affecting 38 million Africans. The world, and the 
United States, cannot afford to let Mr. Bush go to Africa without a 
real plan to put cash behind the administration's statements on AIDS. 
American officials should not be giving anyone lectures while Wash-
ington's response to the major catastrophe of our time remains lim-
ited largely to words.

Copyright © The New York Times

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