New York Times: Boosting Global AIDS Funds (editorial)
The New York Times responds to rumblings that the Obama administration may hold down American financing for international AIDS programs, including PEPFAR. The editorial states that these programs need greatly increased support and expresses hope that “the new budget blueprint to be released this week will leave enough room to grant these and other vital health programs the money they need to care for millions of sick people and to prevent the spread of additional disease around the world.”

CQ Politics.com: Democrats Turn to Appropriations
Democrats unveiled a $410 billion appropriations package on Monday that provides a first glimpse at how Democrats intend to order their spending priorities. President Obama will follow up Feb. 26 with his first budget outline. Democrats cut or did not fund several of Bush’s priorities, which would have been more difficult if they had needed his approval for the final piece of legislation. Bush’s signature foreign aid program, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, would receive $875 million, which is $1.35 billion less than he requested.

Reuters: Don’t cut aid due to downturn, UN body urges
Rich nations should not cut back their aid to the world’s poor because of the global financial crisis, the United Nations’ Human Rights Council said on Monday. In a resolution that failed to win the support of Western powers, the 47-member council urged all states “to refrain from reducing international financial resources for development, including official development assistance and from imposing protectionist measures”.

Reuters: Some 3.2 million Somalis need urgent aid: UN
About 3.2 million people, or 43 percent of population in insurgency-hit Somalia need urgent help to get them through a growing humanitarian and food security crisis, the United Nations’ food agency said on Monday.

Reuters: INTERVIEW-Aid groups plan renewed fight on hunger
More on the food crisis: U.S. aid groups are set to launch a plan to refocus attention on the issue of global hunger, former U.S. Senator George McGovern said on Monday. Participating organizations include Feed the Children, Oxfam America, the U.S. Fund for UNICEF and Catholic Relief Services. The organizations are also set to recommend a shift in the type of food aid provided, balancing traditional donations of U.S.-grown commodities for emergencies with longer-term aid to help countries develop agriculture and food security. In their detailed “roadmap,” the groups propose more than a three-fold increase in U.S. spending by 2014 to meet the goal of halving world hunger by 2015.

-Chandler Smith