[afro-nets] Concerns over Nomination of Randall Tobias to Head USAID

[Claudio Schuftan <claudio@hcmc.netnam.vn>]

Women's Rights NGO Raises Strong Concerns over Nomination of
Randall Tobias to Head USAID
------------------------------------------------------------

Given the effect USAID has over health and development programs
in much of the world, I wanted to share this with you. For more
information, please contact our friends of PHM at the Center for
Health and Gender Equity.

Sarah Shannon
mailto:sarahs@hesperian.org

--
Press Release: Women's Rights NGO Raises Strong Concerns over
Nomination of Randall Tobias to Head USAID

By Jodi L Jacobson, Gender Health

The nomination of Ambassador Randall Tobias to head the United
States Agency for International Development (USAID) deepens con-
cern over the United States' commitment to long-term interna-
tional development strategies that serve the needs of the most
vulnerable, particularly women and girls worldwide. The Ambassa-
dor currently is head of the Office of the GlobalAIDS Coordina-
tor (OGAC) at the Department of State.

"Under Ambassador Tobias' watch at OGAC, the U.S. has carried
out a controversial approach to HIV prevention that goes far be-
yond any congressional mandate, by, among other things, limiting
access to condoms even in generalized epidemics and hampering
effective outreach to sex workers," stated Jodi L. Jacobson, Ex-
ecutive Director of the Center for Health and Gender Equity
(CHANGE). "Because Tobias has shown himself vulnerable to pres-
sure by the extreme right at OGAC we feel his nomination to head
USAID at this critical moment is cause for great concern."

"As Administrator of USAID, Ambassador Tobias will oversee a
large portfolio of development programs that affect the health
and rights of women and girls," stated Jacobson. These programs
include critical efforts to expand and strengthen reproductive
health and family planning programs worldwide; programs which
are a matter of life and death in countries where complications
of pregnancy, childbirth, unsafe abortion, and HIV infection are
the leading killers of women ages 15 to 49. Under previous Ad-
ministrations, USAID was arguably the leading global agency in
developing effective, evidence-based programs to address these
problems, and in providing technical assistance to countries in
every region.

"However, under President Bush, the extreme right in the United
States has been given 'carte blanche' in controlling both domes-
tic and international policies and programs addressing reproduc-
tive and sexual health, including HIV prevention," asserted Ja-
cobson.

"Tobias has been all too willing to accede to the demands of the
extreme right in developing policies and programs based on ide-
ology rather than evidence," stated Jacobson.

For example:

-- Ambassador Tobias has put in place HIV prevention policies
focused on "abstinence-only-until-marriage" and "secondary ab-
stinence." These strategies go far beyond any Congressional man-
date, despite the vast and mounting evidence that such programs
leave large segments of the population at immediate risk of HIV
infection. In Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania between 55
and 71 percent of those ages 15 to 24 are already sexually ac-
tive, yet under current U.S. policies this group gets no infor-
mation, skills, or training on safer sex strategies. In other
countries in sub-Saharan Africa, new infections are rising fast-
est among married women, further demonstrating that abstinence-
until-marriage HIV prevention programs have no relationship to
common modes of HIV transmission.

-- Ambassador Tobias has made inaccurate public statements on
the role of condoms in reducing the spread of sexually transmit-
ted infections, including HIV. In a March 2004 Congressional
hearing, Tobias testified that the London School of Hygiene and
Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) had reported that condoms were inef-
fective in preventing the spread of HIV for the general popula-
tion. In response, the President of LSHTM wrote Ambassador To-
bias,"[W]e cannot find the source for this claim. Indeed, there
has been a steady stream of publications from LSHTM attesting to
the importance of condom promotion as a part of any comprehen-
sive HIV prevention strategy. "Yet the Ambassador repeated the
same claim in another Congressional hearing in May 2004. In an-
other unsupported statement in April 2004, he asserted that
"[s]tatistics show that condoms really have not been very effec-
tive."

-- Ambassador Tobias has funded questionable organizations de-
spite their lack of technical competency. Tobias approved a $10
million grant for HIV prevention to the Children's Aid Fund
(CAF), despite the fact that the proposal submitted by CAF
failed to pass review by an expert technical committee. The or-
ganization is run by Anita and Shepherd Smith, supporters of
President Bush. Anita Smith also serves as the Chair of the
President's Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS. Under OGAC, many
other, similar organizations, including those that qualify sim-
ply because they are "faith-based," are now receiving large sums
from the U.S. government without adequate mechanisms for moni-
toring their use of U.S. taxpayer funding.

-- Programs focused on the needs and rights of women are largely
absent from the OGAC strategy, despite the fact that the highest
rates of new infections are in older adolescent girls ages 15
and above and in married women in their twenties and thirties.
The female condom -- the only currently available female-
controlled method of HIV prevention -- is largely ignored by
OGAC.

"Ambassador Tobias' willingness to foster an ideological agenda
under OGAC raises serious questions about his treatment of other
sensitive issues that will fall within his purview at USAID,
such as broader reproductive health and family planning pro-
grams," stated Jacobson. "Such programs remain a primary target
of the extreme right in the United States. Given his past his-
tory, we have no confidence that Ambassador Tobias would stand
up to an ideological assault on these programs."

Before confirming him for this post, "the Senate must ensure
that Ambassador Tobias is committed to non-partisan humanitarian
aid programs that seek the best methods -- and use the best peo-
ple -- to improve health and reduce poverty worldwide. Humani-
tarian aid programs should respond to needs of people, not poli-
ticians," Jacobson concluded.

--
The Center for Health and Gender Equity is a U.S.-based non-
governmental organization focused on the effects of U.S. inter-
national policies on the health and rights of women, girls, and
other vulnerable populations in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.


CONTACT:
Jodi L. Jacobson
Center for Health and Gender Equity
Tel.: +1-301-270-1182
Mobile: +1-301-257-7897
mailto:change@genderhealth.org
http://www.genderhealth.org