GATES AND COCA COLA HELP ASSAULT ON A.I.D.S.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on Tuesday announced a $100 million donation to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's fledgling Global AIDS and Health Fund, but other major American foundations so far aren't following suit, reports the Wall Street Journal (p. B1) reports. While some philanthropies are modestly increasing funding for their own anti-AIDS programs, no other foundation has answered Annan's "call to action" with such a dramatic gesture to fight the pandemic. The Washington Post (p. A21), Los Angeles Times (p. A4), Washington Times (p. A15) and Boston Globe also report on the Gates Foundation announcement.
Separately, the Wall Street Journal (p. B1) reports that under pressure with other corporations to join the war against AIDS, Coca Cola Co. says it is putting its massive distribution system and marketing muscle behind the fight against the disease in Africa, where 70 percent of the world's cases of HIV infection are found. The article also notes Coca Cola is considering a financial contribution to combat AIDS but hasn't decided yet whether it will contribute to a planned multibillion-dollar global AIDS fund that the UN is trying to raise, says Alexander Cummings, the Liberian-born president of Cokes' African business.
Reporting on the Gates Foundation announcement, the Wall Street Journal notes at an April meeting of African leaders in Nigeria, Annan indicated he hoped to have financial commitments for the global AIDS fund in place in time for the UN General Assembly's special session on HIV/AIDS, which begins next week. There, Annan intends to present the outlines of a plan to fight the disease, including specific targets and timetables for reducing AIDS-related deaths and infections, especially in poorer countries. The AIDS virus infects more than 36 million people world-wide.
The UN estimates it will cost between $7 billion and $10 billion a year to turn the tide on the AIDS epidemic-at least five times the annual AIDS spending of governments, international donors and individuals combined. Governments are expected to provide the bulk of the global AIDS fund's financing. In addition to the Gates Foundation donation, which is to be spread over several years, the fund has raised $425 million from the US, British and French governments, the UN says.
The big question, Gates said in a recent interview, is: "Are the rich world governments going to step up in a significant way?" Details of the structure and governance of the fund, which will be administered by the World Bank, haven't been finalized. Gates and his colleagues at the Gates Foundation are being tapped as unofficial advisers. The fund also is expected to make grants to fight tuberculosis and malaria.
Already, parallels with GAVI are beginning to emerge. A confidential background paper offering an initial blueprint of Annan's global fund shows it will be "an alliance of partners," with a small executive board and a small secretariat. The fund seeks to "leverage additional political engagement and financial commitment" and to "bring in new partners" to fight the epidemic. The paper calls for the fund to have "mechanisms to ensure that money flows rapidly and is wisely utilized."
The news comes as the Financial Times (p.8) reports that Annan, who is due to meet British Prime Minister Tony Blair tomorrow, is in Britain to promote the global fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria in the developing world. Speaking on BBC Radio, Annan said yesterday he expected Britain to be one of the "lead nations" in the struggle against poverty in Africa, and praised International Development Secretary Clare Short and Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown for their work on development. He repeated his call for a fund of up to $10 billion lead the fight against AIDS.
Meanwhile, Amir Attaran, Kenneth Freedberg and Martin Hirsch of Harvard University write in the International Herald Tribune (p.9) that AIDS prevention and treatment must go hand-in-hand. We can accomplish this if the US administration contributes adequately to the international trust fund for that purpose.
In related news, USA Today (p. 1A) reports unless wealthy nations declare war on AIDS, they're likely to find themselves enmeshed in conflict fought by orphans in countries whose most productive adults have been swept away by the disease, says a report out Tuesday. The report was prepared by the International Crisis Group (ICG), a non-profit, multinational organization founded by former senator George Mitchell to defuse conflicts before they escalate.
Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal (p. B4) reports to help increase the pressure on businesses to join the fight against AIDS, Richard Holbrooke, former US ambassador to the UN, has become president and chief executive of the Global Business Council on HIV and AIDS. The New York Times (p. A8) also reports.
Commenting on the crisis, Mozambique prime minister Pascoal Mocumbi writes in a New York Times op-ed (p. A25) that in Mozambique, the overall rate of HIV infection among girls and young women - 15 percent - is twice that of boys their age, not because the girls are promiscuous, but because nearly three out of five are married by age 18, 40 percent of them to much older, sexually experienced men who may expose their wives to HIV and sexually transmitted diseases. Similar patters are common in other nations where HIV is rapidly spreading. Abstinence is not an option for these child brides, Mocumbi notes. Those who try to negotiate condom use commonly face violence or rejection. And in heterosexual sex, girls and women are biologically more vulnerable to infection than are boys or men.