Bipartisan Action on Foreign Operations Funding

Jun 24th, 2009 4:16 PM EST
By Arjun Mody

Chairman Nita Lowey (D-NY) and Ranking Member Kay Granger (R-TX) exemplified bipartisan leadership in navigating the $48.8 billion State-Foreign Operations bill though the House Appropriations Committee yesterday afternoon. After a few amendments, the bill passed by a near unanimous voice vote demonstrating solid support for live-saving, effective programs.

Over the past few months ONE members across the country contacted Members of Congress on the importance of fighting poverty, and it is clear that ONE has been heard. But no resting on our laurels, there is much, much more to do. The full House will take up the bill after the July 4th holiday, and the Senate Appropriations Committee will begin its work around the same time.

On our key programs, some funding levels are very good, and on others, we need to do more. For global health programs, the House Appropriations Committee provides $7.7 billion, which includes fully funding PEPFAR at $5.259 billion. The global health amount also includes $750 million for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and there is an additional $300 million in the Labor-Health and Human Services bill for a total of $1.05 billion, but the need is $2 billion, so we have some work to do in boosting the funding for this critical, proven program. Good news is that the bill fully funds the President’s Malaria Initiative at $585 million and the Millennium Challenge Account at $1.4 billion, both huge increases from last year’s levels. There is also positive funding for basic education, child and maternal health, and other development programs.

However, in addition to the Global Fund, there is another area of significant concern, and that is the funding of the President’s Food Security initiative. The President’s request was approximately $1.4 billion, but the bill provides about $1 billion, and we believe most of this cut will be felt by African and Latin American countries. This is a key initiative that will help the world’s poorest countries increase their agricultural productivity, reduce poverty, and provide economic prosperity.

Yesterday’s action marks an important step in the funding process, and also provides us with the opportunity to make a difference going forward.

-Arjun Mody

How’s the President doing?

May 13th, 2009 4:49 PM EST
By Chris.Scott

Tomorrow the Kaiser Family Foundation will host a live, interactive webcast featuring an expert panel examining the global health aspects of the President’s recently released Fiscal Year 2010 budget proposal. Among the topics discussed will be the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI). The panel will also discuss other aspects of US funding for global health programs.

ONE’s Director of Government Relations Tom Hart will take part in the discussion, which will be streamed live here tomorrow, Thursday, at 1 pm EST.

-Chris Scott

The President’s Malaria Initiative, Three Years In

Apr 23rd, 2009 9:56 AM EST
By Rena Pacheco-Theard

In its third annual report released today, the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) announced that it has reached more than 32 million people with malaria prevention and treatment activities in Africa. This is an impressive achievement for an agency created just three years ago, and one that represents a significant scale-up from 6 million people reached in 2006 and 25 million people reached in 2007.

PMI is a $1.2 billion five-year initiative of the U.S. government to reduce the burden of malaria and help alleviate poverty on the African continent. Specifically, it is intended to cut malaria-related deaths by 50 percent in 15 of the hardest hit counties. The initiative is led by the U.S. Agency for International Development and implemented in cooperation with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an agency originally tasked with malaria control in the U.S. over 60 years ago.

To achieve its mandate, PMI works to reduce malaria infections and deaths through proven and effective prevention and treatment programs. In 2008, PMI obtained more than 6.4 million long lasting insecticide-treated bed nets (ITNs) for distribution, and 15.6 million artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) treatments. An estimated 6 million houses were covered by indoor residual spraying, providing protection from mosquito bites for nearly 25 million people.

With support from PMI, countries like Rwanda, Zambia, Zanzibar, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Uganda have all reported declines in the number of people infected with malaria. In Zambia, between 2006 and 2008, malaria prevalence fell by 53 percent and severe anemia cases in children under 5, which is closely linked with malaria, dropped by 68 percent. PMI credits country governments, the Global Fund, the World Bank, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and other partners for the malaria control successes being seen.

-Rena Pacheco-Theard

Obama Adviser On Bush’s Global AIDS Policy

Nov 12th, 2008 10:16 AM EST
By Josh Lozman

An adviser to President-Elect Obama talks of some shifts in focus for Bush’s Global AIDS Policy and other areas of reproductive health.

Despite the success of PEPFAR, PMI and other development programs, pieces of President Bush’s development agenda have been very controversial including policy about AIDS prevention and reproductive health. This article on Bloomberg news examines how some of these policies might change under an Obama Administration.

-Josh Lozman

Talking Malaria From On-The-Ground in Tanzania

Feb 18th, 2008 6:07 PM EST
By Virginia Simmons

(A guest post from Seth Amgott, who’s working now in Tanzania.)

As a visitor to Tanzania, I’m taking malaria medication, and I bet President and Mrs. Bush are, too. If you live here, you can’t take the medicine forever, so you get sick, and your children are at risk.

But as an American and a ONE member, I’m loving that we help Tanzanians do something about it. Malaria is basically gone from Zanzibar, an island of 1 million people where it used to be everywhere, and starting to come down on the mainland.

That will happen much faster with President Bush’s announcement today that the U.S. and the Global Fund will distribute 5.2 million vouchers for low-cost nets.

I understood the need when I met Godlove Kiwanga yesterday just after he left church. I asked about malaria – he had it three weeks ago, high fever, serious pain, and lost income for three days. “People with money, they stay home for one week, two weeks. I had to work.” His daughter, Carry, is 3, and she was sick in December for over a week and had to have an IV at the hospital.

Carry sleeps under a mosquito net, but not the good kind. You can get long-last nights near his house in the capital, but they cost about $9 each, a lot in a poor country. “We have net original and net fakes. Fakes are cheap, 2000 shillings (about $1.80). It’s a big difference,” he said.

His next child will probably get an upgrade. Two years ago, (more…)

Some Background Info For Us

Feb 16th, 2008 3:08 PM EST
By Virginia Simmons

Hi there,

President Bush took off for Benin last night, and will also visit Rwanda, Ghana, Tanzania, and Liberia in the next 6 days.

We expect the trip to cover several of the bipartisan programs ONE supporters have been supporting for years, such as PEPFAR, PMI, the MCA and AGOA.

The ONE policy staff, who we love, put together briefs on all of these topics so that you can peruse at your leisure during the next few days. As news pours in as to what our president is doing day-to-day on his Africa trip, I’ll likely be referring back to the stats in these quick, easy-to-read briefs.

• PEPFAR (President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief)
• PMI (President’s Malaria Initiative)
• MCA (Millennium Challenge Account)
• AGOA (The African Growth and Opportunity Act)

.
-Virginia Simmons

Talking AIDS and Malaria Funding with the Bushes

Feb 4th, 2008 2:22 PM EST
By Virginia Simmons

During an interview aired on Saturday night, FOX News’ Bret Baier asks the Bushes about the administration’s $30 Billion package for AIDS and malaria programs in Africa.

The short conversation that ensues is about halfway through the clip below. (You’ll need Windows Media Player to watch it and it may take a minute to load.)

I also transcribed some excerpts from both Laura and George Bush.

First Lady Laura Bush:

“Economies depend on a … workforce, people who are in good health. If your workforce [is] sick with malaria half the time it’s very difficult. Or sick with AIDS. So… making people healthy is really helpful also for those African economies that are trying to build a better life for the people in their countries.”

President George W. Bush:

“I think government has a responsibility to protect the American people. It’s just part of an overall strategy to protect us. And the United States has to make up its mind - if it’s going to confront the conditions that cause radicalism and protect ourselves, or retreat and withdrawl and say, ‘well you know it costs too much money, therefor we’re not going to try to help others.’”

-Virginia Simmons

Laura Bush on AIDS, Malaria

Oct 30th, 2007 9:46 AM EST
By Virginia Simmons

First Lady Laura Bush talked about PEPFAR and the President’s Malaria Initiative on the Chris Wallace show on Sunday. Watch the clip here. (Note, it may take a few minutes for the full video to load.)

From the interview:

Laura Bush: But many of the policies that I’ve had the chance to visit, like the PEPFAR, the president’s emergency plan for AIDS relief, or the president’s malaria initiative in Africa, are policies that really came from him, I mean, that he felt like the United States could be effective by making sure a whole lot of people in Africa had the chance to get on antiretrovirals and literally save lives.

And my daughter Barbara was in Kenya and Rwanda this week. She went with the World Food Program. And I visited some World Food Program sites and PEPFAR sites.

And she said that when she was introduced, this made her weep. People would say your dad saved my life, because they’re very aware they’re getting antiretrovirals because of the president’s emergency plan which, of course, is funded by the American people, by the American taxpayer.

Chris Wallace: Nancy Reagan once told me that during her husband’s second term, she felt freer to go out to talk about public policy and her views on them, and you seem to be doing the same thing. Why is that?

Laura Bush: Well, I don’t know that it’s — I mean, I think I felt perfectly free during the first term as well to talk about whatever I was interested in. But I also think it took me a while to realize what a platform I had.

You can read the full transcript here.