Global Health Magazine just posted this interesting interview with Ambassador Eric Goosby, the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator. In it he discusses the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) at length as well as the Obama Administration’s plans for combating the global AIDS epidemic.

Excerpt below, full interview here

Q: What are you spending most of your time on now?

Goosby: The main focus has been in understanding what we’ve done in the first five years in the PEPFAR programs (and) in each location how our response in both prevention and treatment do or do not relate to the demographics of the epidemic in each of these settings. In each city, there are multiple epidemics. Each has their own population, and movement of the virus through that population. And we’re looking at how well our prevention programs understand that movement of the virus, and if they have indeed positioned themselves in front of it.

A second focus … has been appreciating the complexity of our partnering network within the country, in the NGO community in particular. It’s been astonishing to see how well we have done in urban populations.

But now the fragility of these health systems is what I’m most concerned about it. They are as fragile as the NGO who is involved in the delivery, and that is dependent on continued resources from us to support them in that effort.

Washington Post: Slowed funding threatens AIDS fight, group says
A new report by Doctors Without Borders warned that slowed funding from international donors, including the United States, is imperiling recent dramatic gains in treating AIDS patients in the developing world. The report highlights the fact that after years of expansion, funding for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, has leveled off, and less of its budget is dedicated to treatment. This, in hand with the global economic crisis and a number of other factors are causing financial support to taper, undermining progress in nations such as Uganda, where some clinics are refusing new patients.

The Economist: The HIV travel ban is lifted
After 22 years of America banning HIV-positive people from entering the country without “hard-to-get waiver,” President Obama has announced that he will do away with the rule. Starting in 2010, HIV-positive people will be able to travel to America and will also be able to apply for citizenship. According to the economist, reversing the travel ban may help Mr. Obama “combat HIV/AIDS domestically by emphasizing that it is a national disease, not one brought in by foreigners.” Here the Economist focuses on how this plays into President Obama’s policies towards homosexuality rather than contextualizing it within the fight against HIV/AIDS.

ABC News: Will Promising New Malaria Vaccine Deliver?
A new vaccine offering the best hope in the fight against the killer disease malaria could be on the market for African children in three to five years — but according to ABC News, the real challenge may be in making sure that it’s available in some of the poorest, most remote areas of Africa. With many life-saving medications in Africa, such as anti-retroviral drugs for HIV/AIDS, “getting them out to people has been nearly as difficult to deal with as manufacturing the drugs themselves.”

Financial Times: G20 ministers seek to counter skepticism
The Financial Times reports that finance ministers and central bank governors from the Group of 20 leading nations will attempt this weekend to flesh out the group’s plan for stronger and more balanced growth as the world emerges from recession. Meeting for the third time this year, the finance ministers’ gathering in St Andrews, Scotland, will seek to counter the lingering skepticism that the new framework for strong, sustainable and balanced growth is another example of “toothless international posturing that will have little practical impact.”

Reuters: China adopts “malaria diplomacy” as part of Africa push
Reuters reports that China is working to improve and enhance the use of the best proven anti-malaria drug, artemisinin, to fight the disease both on its own soil, where the deadly disease has been sharply pruned back, but in Africa as well. China pledged to help Africa fight malaria at the triennial Forum on China and Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in 2006 and has since set up 30 anti-malaria and prevention units. Already, a Chinese-backed eradication program on a small island off Africa has proven a huge success.

Business Day: Food subsidy scheme for poor homes a blessing for small-scale farmers
A food subsidy scheme announced in Kenya this week could help create demand for farm produce and offer a lifeline to smallholder farmers who form a large pool of food suppliers to the poor. The scheme also means that Kenya is now in the league of some of its African peers who have implemented such plans to create social equity and cushion the poorest of the poor against hunger. According to Business Day, the plan could create an incentive to smallholder farmers whose principal clients, the poor, will have their purchasing power enhanced by the cash.

The United States is the biggest donor country to Africa, and if you read this blog often, you know that U.S. financing has prevented millions of needless deaths, and helped build roads, schools and clinics that form the backbone of growing economies and healthy societies. During this tight budget environment, development advocates need to advocate early and aggressively for programs we know are successful. And though the fiscal year 2010 (FY10) budget is not yet complete, the Obama Administration is already deep into crafting the budget for FY11.

ONE submitted our budget request to the Administration a few weeks ago, and we’ve already started our lobbying. I wanted to share that budget request with you today, and over the next few months, we’ll provide further details.

Broadly, ONE’s goals in this year’s budget request are to:

• Continue the scale-up of prevention, treatment and care for AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in line with the Lantos-Hyde funding requests. This includes integrating those programs with broader health care support.
• Scale-up funding for maternal and child health programs, including vaccine delivery and broader primary health care services.
• Scale-up support for some of President Obama’s commitment to increase food security in the developing world
• Begin to increase funding for other priority development areas including education and access to clean water
• Provide support for the multilateral banks, including the African Development Bank, which have played a crucial role in dampening the impacts of the financial crisis in developing countries and play a significant role in improving agricultural productivity across Africa

These are just a few of the many priorities highlighted in this budget document. We look forward to working with you—our members and supporters—over the next year to secure the funding levels described in this budget.

Today, as part of his trip to Washington, Botswana’s President, Ian Khama is scheduled to meet with President Obama. Although the specific topics of discussion have not been released, many are predicting that the two leaders will discuss the precarious situation in Zimbabwe. This discussion is particularly relevant now, as the government of Botswana issued a statement last week condemning Zimbabwe’s unity government and the conflict in the country. Other sources predict that the two will also discuss their shared challenges, including addressing the issue of HIV/AIDS.

Last week, in a statement released announcing President Khama’s visit, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs highlighted the importance of a U.S.-Botswana relationship: “Botswana is a strong democratic partner in sub-Saharan Africa, and the two leaders will meet to discuss a wide range of regional and bilateral issues, including how the United States can support sound governance, economic development, and natural resource conservation throughout the continent.” Botswana is often held up as an example of good governance in Africa, lauded as one of the best governed countries in Africa and praised for effectively managing its natural resources and avoiding the conflict and corruption that has plagued many other nations on the continent.

During his visit to Africa earlier this summer, President Obama emphasized the importance of good governance for success on the continent, saying that with better governance, Africa will undoubtedly prosper. President Obama also commended Botswana’s success, saying that, “ultimately, it will be vibrant democracies like Botswana and Ghana which roll back the causes of conflict and advance the frontiers of peace and prosperity.”

This week, Secretary Clinton announced the Civil Society 2.0 Initiative, an effort to help grassroots organizations in developing countries use digital technology to enhance their work and communications. It’s part of an effort to build the kind of capacity Western governments and NGO’s have enjoyed in the past.

According to the State Department, it will include these 5 components:

1. Deploying a team of experienced technologists to work with civil society organizations around the globe to provide training and support to build their digital capacity.

2. Partnering these technologists with local civil society organizations and governments to develop and implement technology-based solutions to local problems.

3. Publishing interactive “how to” programs and curriculum online to help organizations that do not have access to in-person assistance.

4. Creating a curated open platform that allows any citizen or company to develop, share or suggest content for the curriculum.

5. Allocating $5 million in grant funds for pilot programs in the Middle East and North Africa that will bolster the new media and networking capabilities of civil society organizations and promote online learning in the region.

You can read more about the initiative here.

On November 4, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, presided over by Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Ranking Member Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN), held the confirmation hearing for Daniel Yohannes, nominee for CEO of the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). Yohannes began his testimony by praising MCC efforts; the MCC, he said, “lays innovative foundations” to address the problems of global poverty.

Senators Menendez and Lugar both questioned the place of the MCC within the larger development agenda: Lugar asked if the MCC should remain a separate agency while Menendez stressed that it should be complementary to other aid initiatives, rather than replace them. Yohannes agreed, noting that the MCC has been created from the best practices learned from past endeavors and therefore extremely effective, but that it cannot be successful alone. It is imperative to work with other agencies such as USAID and groups on the ground, he said, to take a coordinated approach and prevent duplicity.

Menendez also praised the country-ownership aspect of the MCC and asked Yohannes how he would ensure that governments are working with a broad cross-section of civil society organizations (CSO), including those who are often not consulted, such as women. Yohannes emphasized he would make CSO input a priority, making certain that a variety of groups and CSOs are consulted.

Lugar encouraged Yohannes to highlight the impacts of the MCC, lamenting that it sometimes takes years to develop projects, compacts and see results, frustrating Congress and others. Yohannes agreed that it was time to show the American people concrete results and emphasized that the U.S. can be proud of its efforts to eradicate deep-seated poverty around the world. Yohannes promised to continue the MCC’s efforts to partner with others to create a “global culture of opportunity.”

Reuters—Africa aid can boost global economy: World Bank
Development aid to Africa can boost domestic demand on the continent and help wean the global economy from over-reliance on personal consumption in the United States, a senior World Bank official said on Thursday. “We need to look at a multi-polar world, because the dependence on U.S. consumption will have to shift,” Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, managing director at the Bank said. “There are other countries that can provide consumption. When you look at Africa, it has around a billion consumers. When you invest in Africa you provide trade and services to these people.”

Los Angeles Times—Massive malaria vaccine trial has begun in Africa
A massive Phase 3 trial of a malaria vaccine is now underway in Africa, with 5,000 children enrolled already out of a target population of 16,000. If results are favorable, marketing approval could be sought as early as 2012, making it the first commercial vaccine available for the disease, researchers said Tuesday in announcing the trial at the 5th Multilateral Initiative on Malaria Pan-African Malaria Conference in Nairobi, Kenya.

The Guardian—Rich countries call on African bloc to keep climate talks on track
Rich countries piled pressure on Africa not to derail climate talks after the poorest countries in the world shocked the UN by walking out of the official negotiations in Barcelona, demanding that their concerns be met. The African bloc complained that rich nations’ carbon cuts were far too small to avoid catastrophic climate change, and refused to participate until more was done. The move forced the UN to abandon several sessions and reschedule others to give rich countries more time to debate emissions cuts.

Reuters—U.S. wary on Doha deal, World Bank says go for it
The United States will not agree to a deal in world trade talks unless other countries make better offers to open their markets, two U.S. trade nominees said yesterday. But a forthcoming study from the World Bank argued that proposals now on the table in the Doha round—which would make it easier for developing countries to trade—would bring huge gains to the world economy and World Trade Organization members should stop quibbling over further concessions.

Deutsche Press Agency—Don’t back-track now on AIDS, Doctors Without Borders warns Western donors
Cutting funding for HIV/AIDS treatment would condemn millions of poor people to death, international medical NGO Doctors Without Borders said Thursday, amid signs they said of Western governments starting to back-track on their commitments. Two major funders of AIDS treatment in poor countries – the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) – are considering scaling back or freeze their funding levels, Doctors Without Borders said in Johannesburg.

The Guardian: African nations make a stand at UN climate talks
African countries have said they are prepared to provoke a major UN crisis if the US and other rich countries do not start to urgently commit themselves to deeper and faster greenhouse gas emission cuts. The move by developing countries reflects “their deep and growing frustration over the slow progress that industrialized countries are making towards agreeing cuts.” According to the Guardian, this week’s UN negotiations in Barcelona are shedding light on the growing split between rich and poor countries, which threatens to blow the talks fatally off course.

The Guardian: US puts climate debate on hold for five weeks despite plea by Merkel
In the latest obstacle on the road to the UN summit in Copenhagen next month, the US Congress ruled out passing a climate change law before 2010. The delay caused a last-minute push by the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, who have repeatedly said US legislation is crucial to a deal on global warming. According to the Guardian, Merkel used a historic address to a joint session of Congress today to urge America to act on climate change, stating that success at Copenhagen rested on the willingness of all countries to accept binding reductions in carbon emissions.

The Christian Science Monitor: Is fight against hunger a matter of security?
Kanayo Nwanze, the new head of the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development is bringing increased attention to hunger and food insecurity as an international security issue, a dimension that is raising new interest in tackling the matter. Rural hunger and food security are increasingly cropping up in venues ranging from the US Congress to G8 summits. According to Nwanze, it is the emergence of food as an international security issue that raises the odds that “the international community will help developing countries come up with sustainable answers to food production challenges.”

Reuters: Only 15 pct of G8 food aid pledge is new-sources
Reuters reports that only $3 billion of the $20 billion promised by a G8 summit over the next three years to boost agriculture in poor countries appears to be new money. According to one diplomat, “In the $20 billion figure people have included all sorts of things, double counting stuff, putting in loans and grants: the real new money is $3 billion at best.” Despite the announcement of increased investment at the G8 meeting in Italy last summer, anti-poverty campaigners warned that the pledges announced by rich countries were proving elusive.

Reuters: Brazil, others squeeze China in scramble for Africa
Though China has now eclipsed the United States as Africa’s biggest trading partner, they are by no means the only country involved in what Reuters is calling the “21st century scramble for Africa.” Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has visited the continent six times in his four years in office and the country has increased its trade with Africa from $3.1 billion in 2000 to $26.3 billion last year. However, according to Reuters, it is not only Brazil and China that are muscling in on Africa. “The two other members of the so-called BRICs grouping — India and Russia — are also setting up stall in a region that for generations European powers regarded as their own back yard.”

Daily Nation: Kenya: Locally-Growing Moringa Tree Key in Fight Against Malaria
A malaria treatment derived from a locally-growing Kenyan shrub is one of only a few herbal cures being presented at an international conference in Nairobi this week. The tree is competing alongside malaria medicines developed by some of the world’s best scientists with the backing of global pharmaceutical giants. In a presentation at the Pan- African Malaria Conference, the tree extract, in combination with other herbs, has been seen to cure even drug-resistant malaria and has been endorsed after trials by the World Health Organization, according to a researcher at the National Research Institute for Chemical Technology in Nigeria.

Reuters: US urged to set 2020 target to save climate deal
The United States came under pressure on Monday to follow other rich countries and set a 2020 goal for cutting greenhouse gases to rescue chances for a climate deal due next month in Copenhagen. At a final preparatory meeting in Barcelona before the UN summit in December, some African countries threatened to walk out, saying rich countries had to deepen their emissions-cutting targets. The head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat said a U.S. number was essential and that the country could not come “empty-handed to Copenhagen.”

The New York Times: AIDS: Panel Warns That Without New Direction, Epidemic Will Remain Out of Control at 50
In an analysis being published today, a panel of AIDS experts predicted that unless there is a drastic change in approach, the AIDS epidemic will still be out of control on its 50th anniversary in 2031. According to the report, the fight against AIDS in developing countries is facing a drastic funding shortfall amid rapidly rising treatment and prevention costs during the global financial crisis. However, the authors of the study emphasized that the funding contraction also presents an opportunity to do better with less and save more lives by eliminating waste, while improving the efficiency of medical care.

The Guardian: Global warming could create 150 million ‘climate refugees’ by 2050
A new report from the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) warns that Global warming will force up to 150 million “climate refugees” to move to other countries in the next 40 years. The EJF claimed 500 million to 600 million people – nearly 10% of the world’s population – are at risk from displacement by climate change and around 26 million have already had to move. “The majority of these people are likely to be internally displaced, migrating only within a short radius from their homes. Relatively few will migrate internationally to permanently resettle in other countries,” said the report’s authors.

Business Day: Why Aid Never Reaches Poor People (Op-Ed)
Advocacy organization Oxfam emphasized recently that “it is time for G20 leaders to stand up and deliver the money needed to protect poor people,” as heads of the world’s biggest economies met in Pittsburgh in September. However, according to Business Day, the real problem is that aid is actually rising but much of it never reaches poor countries. In fact, “most of it is given away in unrestricted grants to hand-picked activist groups, with little accountability and transparency – and, worse, little evidence that the programs are helping the poor.”

AllAfrica.com: Africa: Food for Thought on Food Security (Op-Ed)
President of Oxfam America, Raymond C. Offenheiser writes a guest column for AllAfrica.com in which he highlights the startling fact that for the first time in our history, over one billion people in the world suffer from daily hunger. Investing in farmers, he believes, is the most effective way to address the issues of hunger and poverty and to prepare for likely increases in food prices. Writes Offenhesier, “Investing in agriculture is a powerful poverty reduction tool. It can also contribute to overall economic growth by increasing efficiency in the marketing chain – reducing the share of poor people’s income spent on food, and enabling them to purchase other goods and services, like education, health care, and housing.”

Global Brief: Who’s To Lead?
With issues of climate change, the increasing price and decreasing availability of food and escalating energy costs coming into play at full force, Global Brief poses the complicated question of who is ultimately going to lead world affairs in the 21st century. The publication believes that central to the question of who leads in the process of politics “is the maxim that that good leadership requires good citizenship.” If crisis is to be opportunity, and not a portent to catastrophe, then an unwavering moral commitment to equity, an effective civil society and an aggressive and innovative approach to governance will be central to who leads, and to who gets what, when and how.

Owen Barder, an economist living and working in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, talks about the great impact of the Advance Market Commitment (AMC) on this first World Pneumonia Day:

“If you pay taxes in Italy, the UK, Canada, Norway, or Russia, pat yourself on the back.  Your government has contributed to a market-based financing mechanism called the Advance Market Commitment, or AMC.  This provides  an incentive for vaccine makers to produce suitable vaccines in the necessary quantities at an affordable price for developing countries. The result is that GAVI has been able to reduce the current price of existing pneumococcal vaccines by up to 90%.

In the past, it often took 15 or 20 years before vaccines developed for rich countries were sold at affordable prices in developing countries.  Because of the Advance Market Commitment, four vaccine suppliers are now offering pneumo vaccines, specifically developed for the the developing world at affordable prices.

This is aid at its best: creating financial incentives for companies to bring their expertise and innovation to the table to solve some of the world’s most pressing problems.  Donors only pay for vaccines that actually get delivered and used. This money will save the lives of about seven million children over the next 20 years…

And to the countless bureaucrats and nay-sayers who thought it could never happen: yah-booh-sucks.”

Check out his full post here.