FYI
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Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2000 22:10:16 -0700
From: David Mozer <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
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From: [log in to unmask] [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Thursday, August 17, 2000 3:42 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: ACTION: HIV/AIDS sign-on letter to President Clinton
ADNA Action: 000817
Message from: HIV/AIDS and Health Infrastructure Working Group
of ADNA
For contact info see also:
http://www.africapolicy.org/adna.htm
Dear ADNA members,
Following find the revised letter from the newly formed HIV/AIDS
and Health Infrastructure Working Group of ADNA for your
signature. The deadline for signatures is 3:00pm Friday Aug 18 for
delivery to President Clinton prior to the Press Briefing Monday
morning Aug 21.
This will be organizational names only, no individual or title needed.
Please excuse the short notice and RSVP as quickly as you can.
Feel free to share this with your networks. We will repost the final
with all signatures to the full list as well.
Thank you to all who provided suggestions for the revisions and we
hope we have faithfully incorporated them all in this final version.
For those who are outside the DC commuting area and interested
in connecting to the HIV/AIDS and Health Infrastructure working
group, please contact Leon Spencer at the Washington Office on
Africa. ([log in to unmask])
Regards,
Vicki Ferguson
ADNA Communications Facilitator
President William Clinton
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear President Clinton,
We write to express our concern over the announcement of Export-
Import Bank loans to African nations for AIDS medications. This
approach will do little to address the pandemic on the continent
and will only worsen Africa's current debt crisis. The HIV pandemic
is a humanitarian crisis, not a marketing opportunity for US
pharmaceutical products.
The US, through loans from the Export-Import Bank, is asking
African governments to mortgage the future of their peoples by
taking on increased debt, at commercial rates, to pay for badly
needed medicines to address the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Indeed,
many African countries suffering from the pandemic are so poor
they do not even qualify for loans at commercial rates.
At a time when international pressure, and G-8 commitments, have
focused on lifting Africa's crippling debt, what Africa needs is
grants, not new loans. Substantial grants are needed to increase
prevention, testing and treatment programs, build social service
infrastructures, purchase and provide affordable medicines, and
increase the capacity of communities to cope with the effects of
this pandemic over a long period of time.
Because loan recipients would be required to purchase US-made
drugs under this plan, the primary beneficiaries would be the US
pharmaceutical giants, even if AIDS drugs are sold at a substantial
discount. The minimum wage for many Africans affected by
HIV/AIDS is less than $50 per month (as is the case of Kenya);
thus, even the slashed prices which the Export-Import Bank
presumes will prove inadequate.
The combination of debt and AIDS has crippled the economies of
many countries in Africa. The debt crisis has extracted scarce
resources from impoverished people and increased the burdens of
the poorest households as their governments attempt to meet
creditors demands.
The United Nations AIDS programme estimates that there are 33.4
million people globally with HIV/AIDS. Of these, approximately 23
million are in Africa. In Zambia alone, where 20 percent of the
population is now estimated to be HIV positive, the Zambian
government spends $17 per person on health annually and spends
$30 per person on debt service to western creditors. The world's
richest nations have promised debt relief ( which African countries
have yet to see) and the U.S. recently authorised only $570 million
per year for two years for AIDS and TB research through the Global
AIDS and Tuberculosis Relief Act.
This is a pitiful figure when compared to U.N. estimates that
approximately $2.5 billion a year is needed just to mount an
aggressive and effective campaign against AIDS on the African
continent alone. What is even more shameful is the additional debt
burden of the $1 billion loan fund at market rates through the
Export-Import Bank this approach would create. This would only
benefit U.S. firms selling AIDS drugs, equipment and services to
African countries and the wealthy elite of those countries.
Pharmaceutical companies are keen to avoid the entirely legal
prospect of local manufacture or import of generic versions of their
drugs. Their announcement two months ago of plans to cut drug
prices reflects that, but details have yet to be provided by any of
the major drug companies. Instead of this mistaken Export-Import
Bank initiative, your administration should be urging U.S.
pharmaceutical companies to demonstrate a long-term
commitment to addressing the crisis with concrete action and real
benefits on the ground as their priority, not their profit margin or
market share.
The US would do better to come through on its debt relief
commitments immediately and pledge substantial new grant
resources to address the pandemic. This plan fails completely on
both counts.
The US Congress is currently debating what to do with an historical
budget surplus, and nowhere in the present proposals is there any
reflection of the US as a responsible member of the larger
international community. A significant step toward combatting the
HIV/AIDS crisis would be to dedicate a modest 5% of the US
annual budget surplus to a global health emergency fund. Such a
contribution - approximately $9.5 billion this year - would send a
signal in favour of global responsibility rather than one of global
corporate exploitation of suffering, and would provide the leadership
for other wealthy nations to place a sorely absent emphasis on the
health and well-being of the whole human community.
We look forward to your response and to working together to
address these critical global health needs.
Respectfully submitted:
Organizational Names here
***
This message is distributed from the HIV/AIDS and Health
Infrastructure Working Group for the Advocacy Network for Africa
(ADNA).
Vicki Lynn Ferguson
Advocacy Network for Africa
Communications Facilitator
c/o Africa Policy Information Center
110 Maryland Ave, NE #509
Washington, DC 20002
Ph: 202-546-7961
Fax: 202-546-1545
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Web: http://www.africapolicy.org/adna
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