[afro-nets] Change Press Release on Legislation to Modify PEPFAR

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

Change Press Release on Legislation to Modify PEPFAR
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from Vern Weitzel <vern@coombs.anu.edu.au>

http://www.pepfarwatch.org/

Congresswoman Barbara Lee Introduces Landmark Legislation to Stop the Spread of HIV among Women and Girls Worldwide

* Bi-Partisan bill requires PEPFAR to address vulnerability of women and girls;
* strikes the abstinence-until-marriage earmark.
* widespread Support from Local, State and National Organizations.

(Washington, D.C.) Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA) and 53 other members of Congress?including Representatives Jim Leach (R-IA), Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), James Moran (D-VA) and Christopher Shays (R-CT) ?introduced a bill today that, if passed, would require all HIV prevention programs funded by the President?s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) to address violence against women and other factors fueling the rapid spread of HIV infections among women and girls. The legislation, Protection Against Transmission of HIV for Women and Youth Act of 2006 (PATHWAY Act of 2006), also strikes the earmark requiring that 33 percent of all HIV prevention funding be spent on abstinence-until-marriage programs and ensures that all individuals reached by US-funded programs are provided with the skills, information, and methods needed to avoid HIV infection.

?This bill provides an urgently needed correction to PEPFAR prevention programs,? stated Jodi Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE), a non-governmental organization that monitors the effects of US global AIDS policies on the health and rights of women, girls, and other vulnerable populations. ?The evidence is clear,? Jacobson continued: ?The highest rates of new infections throughout sub-Saharan Africa are among women in their twenties and thirties and among youth ages 15 to 24.?

Congresswoman Lee stated, ?There is no reason why someone should be more vulnerable to AIDS because she is a woman, but the fact remains that women and girls in developing countries are bearing the brunt of the global HIV/AIDS pandemic. Our prevention efforts must be sensitive to the growing gender disparity of this epidemic and must focus on providing women and girls the education and resources they need to protect themselves.?

More than 47 local, state and national organizations, including such groups as the Chicago Foundation for Women, Ohio AIDS Taskforce, Africa Action, and amfAR The Foundation for AIDS Research and the Episcopal Church have signed on in support of the legislation.  (A full list of organizations and members of Congress supporting the legislation, and the legislation itself, can be found at http://www.pepfarwatch.org/). In addition, an increasing number of civil society actors in countries affected by this legislation are speaking out against US prevention policies and their impact on effective strategies on the ground.

As the recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report confirmed, restrictions on prevention funding in the original legislation authorizing PEPFAR are undermining efforts to prevent the greatest number of infections possible at the country level and are hampering the development of evidence-based strategies at the field level needed to respond to local needs.  Among other findings, the GAO concluded that the abstinence-until-marriage earmark undermined efforts at the country level to provide integrated programs that best meet the needs of those at risk of HIV infection, and that the guidance for implementing these programs is unclear.  (The full GAO report and a summary of findings from the report can be found at http://www.pepfarwatch.org/>).

Participants at an international conference on HIV prevention in London this week expressed their full support for efforts to eliminate funding restrictions for prevention programs and make them more responsive to local needs.

?In Zambia, programs funded by the US are actively undermining public confidence in condoms, and once-comprehensive programs are being replaced by those that are focused only on abstinence,? noted Vincent Mwale, Director of Young, Happy, Healthy and Safe, a non-governmental organization working on sexual and reproductive health among youth. ?This is creating confusing messages, and increasing the stigma we have worked so hard for many years to erase. The result is that youth are still sexually active but are increasingly turning away from using condoms during sex because of the stigma now being associated with them. This situation is not good for a country in which the current prevalence rate is 16 percent in the general population.?

Similar concerns were raised by Christabel Ene Unobe of Girls Power Initiative, Nigeria, and Femi Aina Fasinu, Youth Coalition, Nigeria. ?We know that young people will abstain from sex for a while,? observed Unobe, ?but we also know that eventually they become sexually active. They need to be prepared for when they do so. Yet in Nigeria, we are seeing a resurgence of very conservative approaches to sex and to prevention programs, with strong support from PEPFAR.  This has led to the elimination of comprehensive programs in schools, and also legal restrictions on advertisements for condoms in public places.  At the same time, we are seeing unintended pregnancies on the rise, and HIV infections at very high rates among youth.?  Fasinu asserted that ?under PEPFAR programs, young people in Nigeria are getting mixed information on how to protect themselves, leading to confusion.?

Similar comments on US policy came from other regions.  Svenn Grant of the YMCA of Trinidad and Tobago, noted that ?The US is very influential on many levels in the politics and society of Trinidad and Tobago.  We had a wholistic health and family life education program, created and approved by the government.  Now this has been postponed because off the perceived importance of abstinence-based programs coming from the United States.?

?Both the GAO report and numerous independent country reports underscore the extent to which US policies are undermining effective HIV prevention programs in every region.  Yet people everywhere want access to correct, consistent information, and to the tools?such as male and female condoms?they need to protect themselves,? said Jacobson.  ?This legislation seeks to ensure they will get what they need to be safe.?

CHANGE will be leading a grassroots advocacy effort to raise awareness of the negative effects of the abstinence earmark within PEPFAR and to highlight voices from the field speaking out about the policy in their countries and communities.

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Claudio Schuftan
mailto:claudio@hcmc.netnam.vn