Barack Obama

With the ongoing International AIDS Conference in Vienna, the global HIV/AIDS epidemic has been thrust back into the spotlight the last several days. The Guardian has this report of the US response to criticism of recent AIDS funding:

Barack Obama has been personally hurt by claims he reneged on promises to increase US funding to fight Aids, the head of his administration’s efforts to counter the disease has said, rejecting the criticism as unjust.

Eric Goosby, who leads Pepfar, the President’s Emergency Plan For Aids Relief, has himself been targeted by noisy demonstrators at the international Aids conference in Vienna who have invaded the platform, accusing the US of allowing people with HIV to die. The issue of funding in an economic recession – and particularly the US government’s contribution – has been the tense underlying theme of the meeting.

Activists say Obama promised an extra $50bn (£33bn) for Aids by 2013 before he was elected but is now flat-lining Aids funding, with an increase of just 2.5% in 2011. Obama has made HIV/Aids part of a global health initiative that is to get an overall funding increase of 8% – but other initiatives, particularly on cutting the deaths of women in childbirth and their babies, will get a bigger increase.

Goosby said Obama was disturbed by activists’ charges, pointing out that the US is the world’s largest donor towards the fight against HIV/Aids.

“I think it has been frustrating to be presented as a non-contributor. The administration and the president have been hurt by the characterisation that the US has not stepped up to the plate and taken this commitment seriously in all arenas,” Goosby said.

The US provided more than 50% of total global health spending, he said, and in many sub-Saharan African countries Pepfar provided between 40% and 95% of the Aids treatment response. “That really reflects an extraordinary commitment, unmatched and unparalleled by any other country on the planet, not for one year but for the past seven years,” he said.

Before Obama was elected Pepfar had put 1.8 million people in the developing world on treatment, Goosby said. That was now up to 2.5 million and Pepfar was committed to reaching 4 million. “What other country has done anything close to that?” he asked.

This week, President Obama will announce a national AIDS strategy to reduce the number of new infections. Many, including us at ONE, were startled and troubled by the news last year that the District of Columbia had an HIV positive rate that is still higher than many African countries. This pandemic is truly global and needs to be fought everywhere. We’ll keep you posted when the strategy is announced.

Here’s an excerpt from the New York Times report:

President Obama will unveil a new national strategy this week to curb the AIDS epidemic by slashing the number of new infections and increasing the number of people who get care and treatment.

“Annual AIDS deaths have declined, but the number of new infections has been static and the number of people living with H.I.V. is growing,” says a final draft of the report, obtained by The New York Times.

In the report, the administration calls for steps to reduce the annual number of new H.I.V. infections by 25 percent within five years. “Approximately 56,000 people become infected each year, and more than 1.1 million Americans are living with H.I.V.,” the report says.

Mr. Obama plans to announce the strategy, distilled from 15 months of work and discussions with thousands of people around the country, at the White House on Tuesday.

While acknowledging that “increased investments in certain key areas are warranted,” the report does not propose a major increase in federal spending. It says the administration will redirect money to areas with the greatest need and population groups at greatest risk, including gay and bisexual men and African-Americans. The federal government now spends more than $19 billion a year on domestic AIDS programs.

AFP reports:

President Barack Obama lauded the “heroism” of Liberia’s President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf on Thursday, saying her commitment to democracy stood as an example for other troubled African nations.

Obama met Sirleaf in the Oval Office, and pledged the United States would stand with Liberia at every step of the way of its democratic development.

“I have been an extraordinary admirer of her work for many years now…. The United States and Liberia are close friends, longstanding partners, and Liberia is now emerging from a very difficult period,” Obama said.

“Part of the reason it has been able to emerge is because of the heroism and courage of President Sirleaf.”

“She is committed to the rule of law, made strides in reforming the judiciary and in all these endeavors I want to make sure the people of Liberia understand… that the United States is a constant friend and partner.”

Obama said Sirleaf’s example should be taken as inspiration to other African nations including, Guinea, Ivory Coast and Niger.

Sirleaf said her country had made important progress, and she thanked Obama for his and America’s support.

Africa’s first elected female head of state, Sirleaf said that she would not hide the fact that Liberia had challenges, but added that all basic freedoms were alive in her country today.

“We said that we were going to make Liberia rise again. I come today on behalf of the Liberian people to say that we have made a lot of progress,” she said.

Cross-posted at the Huffington Post:

Global development advocates have been waiting and waiting for President Obama to signal how he intends to act on his bold and ambitious commitments to fight poverty and to promote growth and stability around the globe. The wait appears to have been worth it. Last week, a preliminary draft of Presidential Study Directive (PSD) – A New Way Forward on Global Development – found its way into the media, perhaps not the preferred means of disclosure, but one that offers enormous promise for a new vision of development as an elevated and core element of US foreign policy.

The draft PSD threads together multiple goals to be pursued by American investments in global development, bringing stability to nations emerging from conflict, attacking poverty, enhancing economic growth and supporting universal values. It brings a refreshing coherence to a policy agenda that has often times been marked by fragmentation, neglect, and contradiction. It recognizes successes from the past – like the provision of life-saving medicines and delivery of humanitarian aid – and proposes to integrate those into new priorities that address the challenges faced today. And it establishes a permanent means to routinely review and adjust policy priorities through a US Global Development Strategy, signed by the President every four years.

This new approach calls for a “deliberate development policy,” moving away from a process of making trade-offs through implicit decision-making, to an explicit identification of policy objectives, an order of prioritization, and resource alignment that will achieve them. The PSD draft envisions a system that maximizes the potential of innovation, differentiates between widely divergent development landscapes — from Afghanistan to Ghana — and holds partner governments and societies accountable for results. Under a new business model, there will be greater emphasis on prioritizing sectors in which the US invests, including health, food security, and governance, and establishes and better defines divisions of labor with other donors. US policy will align with partner country national strategies, will leverage non-public development actors that have become such critical elements in fighting poverty and promoting growth, and will strengthen multilateral approaches to global challenges. All of this will be done utilizing rigorous evaluation procedures, measuring impact, and adjusting strategies when necessary.

Importantly, the New Way Forward commits to a bipartisan approach in partnership with Congress. It implies establishing the “grand bargain” with lawmakers, seeking greater executive flexibility in program and policy management in exchange for a commitment of heightened accountability for results to elected officials and the American people.

This is an impressive and encouraging statement of White House policy. But now for the hard part. First, the President needs to sign the PSD, something we hope will take place this week. And now that we’ve seen a draft, we will be watching closely that the final document fully endorses, or better yet, further strengthens the policy principles set out in the leaked version. As with any policy statement, the test will be in the implementation. The plan is bold but will be meaningless without strong and continuous leadership and monitoring from the White House. The wait is over – we hope – and now the real work begins.

ONE’s co-founder Bono met with President Obama and members of his national security staff earlier today to discuss the Administration’s development strategy heading into the upcoming G8 and G20 meetings in Canada and September’s UN Summit on the Millennium Development Goals. They talked about Bono’s recent trip to Senegal, Ghana, Mozambique, Kenya and South Africa and about how good governance and increased trade and investment are critical to driving economic growth on the African continent.

Bono made the following remarks after the meeting in the Oval Office:

With the first blackberry president, we discussed the power of new technology to empower activists and entrepreneurs across Africa, part of a new rising generation that’s boosting growth and governance and defying stereotypes.

A recurring theme was innovation. We agreed that there are simple technologies that need to be made more available to transform not only public health, but also agriculture, helping farmers check prices and weather patterns. While acknowledging these are difficult times for donor economies, we discussed the President’s food security initiative and agreed to encourage other countries who signed up to keep their commitment to invest $22 billion over 3 years.

The President and his team are preparing for the UN development summit in September where it will have to be admitted that not enough has been done – north or south of the equator – for and by the world’s poorest economies to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, which have as their target a halving of extreme poverty by 2015.

We also discussed the real results American aid is achieving — malaria deaths cut in half across the continent of Africa, 3 million Africans on life-saving AIDS medication and 42 million more children going to school. This is momentum that can be built upon now.

Last Thursday night at an event in Boston, MA, ONE member Phillip Williams was able to meet President Obama and briefly advocate for ONE. He wrote me from the event:

All good. Was able to hand him a ONE band in a handshake but was reaching over someone. Got a nod when he looked at it. Wasn’t able to talk but I’m sure we will cross paths again.

Using your voice for ONE can be a powerful action that can help save millions of lives in the developing world. From passing a ONE band to the President of the United States, to making a call today to your Senator urging them to sign onto the Bipartisan Budget Letter that would uphold the International Affairs Budget – your voice matters and can make the difference!

Earlier today, ONE’s own Lauren Conn, ONE intern and member Emily Daher, and a group of George Mason University ONE members, talked to and gave a ONE white wristband to President Obama outside an event in Fairfax, Virginia!

Lauren is still out in the field working, but sent us back this report:

We greeted and thanked President Obama on his way into the event – and then got a chance to talk to him on his way out. We asked him to remember the world’s poorest and he said, “absolutely,” looked at all of our ONE shirts, took a ONE band and joked about his collection.

Emily Daher : “Thank you for supporting the world’s poorest!”
President Obama: “Absolutely. Thank you — I have like 15 of these!”

ONE members all across the country (we just caught up with him in Nevada last month) have thanked the president for requesting a robust international affairs budge and asked the administration to continue their efforts to fight extreme poverty and strengthen our national security.

An awesome way to end this Friday. Go ONE!

The Presidents held a joint press conference just moments ago upon meeting at the White House. Below is the video:

Yesterday, Secretary Clinton also held a joint press conference with President Preval You can watch in full below:

In just under 2 hours, the President and the First Lady will speak at a reception commemorating International Women’s Day. You can watch the live stream of their remarks below:

President Obama and former Presidents Bush and Clinton are speaking live on the White House lawn about the crisis in Haiti and the need for both immediate and long term attention to the country’s recovery efforts. You can watch live on CNN.com. right now.

An excerpt from a related story in the Washington Post:

“Obama is asking former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton to coordinate efforts to involve more Americans in the recovery and rebuilding effort that’s needed in Haiti.”