Wall Street Journal—Bill Gates Prods Washington on Foreign Aid, Education
Yesterday in a speech at George Washington University, Bill Gates urged lawmakers and the coming Obama administration to maintain U.S. investments in foreign-aid and education initiatives despite the financial crisis. Gates offered an upbeat vision of the future, saying “Difficult times can launch great ideas.” He urged broad support for President-elect Obama’s pledge during the campaign to double U.S. foreign aid to $50 billion by 2012. “If we can support the president as he stands by his pledge to the poorest nations — even in the face of our own financial crisis — it will make a phenomenal statement about the kind of partner America plans to be in the world.”

AFP: Italy Calls Crisis Summit Of G-8 Plus 6 Emerging Economies
Italy, which takes up the Group of Eight presidency in January, will host a 14-state summit in March to discuss the “human dimension” of the world financial crisis, Labor Minister Maurizio Sacconi said Wednesday. The meeting will bring together G-8 leaders as well as those of six emerging nations to discuss “the human dimension of the crisis, unemployment and measures that the international community can adopt in a more coordinated way,” Sacconi said.

Reuters—Africa growth may suffer if AIDS funds fall: World Bank
Africa’s economic growth could suffer from the knock-on effect of more people dying from HIV/AIDS if donors cut funding for prevention because of the global financial crisis, the World Bank said on Wednesday. Elizabeth Lule, manager of the bank’s AIDS team for Africa, told Reuters that with the United States and Europe sliding into recession because of the global economic downturn, both donor and recipient countries would be juggling competing priorities.

Daily Monitor (Ethiopia): USAID Gives $22 Mln to Support WFP’s HIV/Aids Program
In an event in Addis Abeba , Ethiopia earlier this week, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) contributed $22 million dollars to support World Food Program’s (WFP) Urban HIV/AIDS Program in Ethiopia over the next three years. The program will address the food and nutritional needs of thousands of malnourished people living with HIV and their vulnerable children living in urban areas, USAID/Ethiopia Mission Director Glenn Anders said.

-Steve Wilson