Global Action for Children

During his 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama vowed to add $1 billion annually to the U.S. fund that George W. Bush and Congress created to fight AIDS in Africa and other developing nations.

Instead, as president, Obama proposed only a $366 million increase for the coming fiscal year – which comes on top of another broken promise from last year. In 2009, he proposed spending only $165 million for PEPFAR, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.

It is heartening to see the progress being made to build, for the first time, a strong education sector in Haiti. But, unfortunately, a critical piece is still absent.

Early childhood development programs that serve children from birth to age 8 would have an immense and lasting positive impact on both individual children and Haiti as a whole.

A plan to build a new education system in Haiti is one of the most encouraging things to emerge from the rubble of the Jan. 12 earthquake. It is expected to be endorsed at a meeting on Tuesday of the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission, the joint Haitian-international body created to guide the country’s rebuilding.

August 13, 2010: Above all the incessant bickering between Democrats and Republicans, there is at least one bipartisan effort that Americans and President Obama should hear and support.

Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., recently expressed concern about the future of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which was signed by former President George W. Bush, as details of the Obama administration's Global Health Initiative emerge.

August 13, 2010: For years, Defense Secretary Robert Gates – like most defense leaders -- has said over and over that U.S. cannot win the wars in Afghanistan or Iraq with military might alone. He has practically begged for a vastly expanded budget for his diplomatic and humanitarian partners across the Potomac at the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, the nation’s foreign aid and assistance arm. But Gates opened a crack to his true feelings on Thursday, when he said to an audience of Marine Corps veterans in San Francisco, in frustration, “I will tell you, Congress is part of the problem.”

July 20, 2010: Having met President Obama, I’m confident that he’s a man of conscience who shares my commitment to bringing hope and care to the world’s poor. But I am saddened by his decision to spend less than he promised to treat AIDS patients in Africa.

August 9, 2010: At the last G8 summit in June, the world’s leading nations agreed to work hard on the usual litany of good causes—peace, global warming, etc.—with one notable exception. The issue that had dominated the summit just five years ago, foreign aid, got little mention. Perhaps that’s not surprising, given how many rich nations are busy bailing themselves out of the debt crisis, but it is emblematic of a wider malaise: the death of generosity itself.

July 14, 2010: To many in Washington, flat-funding investment in global HIV/AIDS funding, ten percent of which goes to orphans and vulnerable children, is a regrettable but necessary step in tough economic times. But, with AIDS still killing 7,400 people each day, now is not the time to slow down, especially when you consider the impact of the crisis on children. In the five countries with the highest adult HIV prevalence worldwide, HIV is the single leading cause of under five mortality and responsible for 41-56% of deaths in those countries.

July 6, 2010: Laerdal Medical, a Norwegian manufacturer of medical simulators, hopes its low-tech $100 "frontpack" will play a part in the pursuit of MDG 5 by giving birth attendants a chance to practice.

July 6, 2010: On June 29^th, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs approved the fiscal year 2011 foreign affairs appropriations bill, which includes $750 million to support maternal and child health programs, $134 million for UNICEF and $95 million for the GAVI Alliance (a global health partnership designed to provide increased access to new and underused vaccines for poor countries). Global Action for Children (GAC) thanks the subcommittee for providing increased allocations above last year but is concerned that the funding is still insufficient to fully address the needs of disadvantaged populations. GAC urges the United States Senate to show leadership on this issue and allocate $1 billion for child and maternal health, $200 million for nutrition, $140 million for UNICEF and $125 million for GAVI.