The Global Fund will spend $2.75 billion over the next two years to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in 140 countries, in the hopes of cutting the number of deaths caused by these diseases in half by 2015. Ninety percent of the approved grants for the program are for low-income countries, mostly in Africa and the Middle East.
The World Bank announced yesterday that they will be greatly increasing aid to developing countries and companies based there. This aid could total up to $100 billion over the next three years, in the hopes that it will counter some of the lingering effects of the financial crisis as it spreads to developing countries. Aside from expanded lending, the World Bank Group is also working to speed up grants and long-term, interest-free loans to the world’s 78 poorest countries. Read more.
On reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis: I’ll double annual foreign assistance from $25b to $50b by 2012. I was a co-sponsor of the Lantos-Hyde Act that authorized $48 billion by 2013 for HIV/AIDS, malaria and TB. I support lifting the 33% cap on US contributions to the Global Fund, ensuring at least 4.5 million people are on ARV treatment by 2013, and preventing 12 million new infections.
On eradicating malaria: I will support the goal of ending deaths from malaria by 2015 by building on the $1billion per year commitment to malaria in the recent PEPFAR reauthorization and dramatically expanding access to mosquito nets that for less than $6 will lower the risk of getting malaria and save lives. I will also expand access to ACTs - at the relatively inexpensive cost of $2 per dose - to treat people who get malaria.
On improving child and maternal health: I will increase funding for child and maternal health and ensure that increases in other important areas - including HIV/AIDS - do not come at the expense of child health and survival programs. I will expand access to vaccinations, increase research into new vaccines, and expand access to reproductive health programs.
On achieving universal primary education: Worldwide, an estimated 100 million children - including nearly 60 million girls - are not attending school. By 2010, getting these children into school could cost $10b annually. To meet our share of that sum, I look forward to signing the Education for All Act and will request the funding levels needed to carry it out.
On cutting in half the number of people without clean water or enough food: More than 1b people lack access to clean water, and that number will increase with the impact of climate change. The US has an obligation to increase access to clean water and sanitation. Through increased funding of up to $1.3b annually and innovative programs like ‘play pumps,’ I will expand access to clean water and sanitation. On additional commitments to the world’s poor: I’ll make the Millennium Development Goals American policy. By the end of my first term I expect to see progress to meeting the MDGs, including reducing by half the number of people living on less than a dollar a day and suffering from hunger, and reversing the number of new HIV infections and malaria cases.
Posts
