Obama Unshackles Global AIDS Work
Sept. 1, 2009
By Barbara Crossette
The Nation
In a clear disavowal of Bush-era rules that prevented cooperation between government-funded HIV/AIDS programs and broader sexual health and gender work in developing countries, the Obama administration has signaled to agencies abroad that the walls are coming down and that experts on the spot will have new freedom of action.
Under Bush, people in the field working to implement the United States President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, known as Pepfar, were subject to micromanagement under ideologically inspired guidance that, among other requirements, demanded that 50 percent of AIDS prevention funds in countries with generalized epidemics be devoted to abstinence and "faithfulness" campaigns. That provision, born of provincial ignorance about the world, would be a joke if it weren't so cruel to millions.
The old guidelines also barred links between AIDS efforts and family planning, at a time when AIDS was becoming a woman's disease in many places and women had no power to resist unwanted or risky sex.
For full article, visit: http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090914/crossette
This page last updated September 15, 2009 6:37 .