PHA-Exchange> CHANGE PRESS RELEASE ON LEGISLATION TO MODIFY PEPFAR

Tue Jun 27 07:08:01 PDT 2006

 from Vern Weitzel <vern at coombs.anu.edu.au> -----

     /*www.pepfarwatch.org*
     <http://www.pepfarwatch.org/>

*Congresswoman Barbara Lee Introduces Landmark Legislation *

*to Stop the Spread of HIV among Women and Girls Worldwide*

*/Bi-Partisan bill requires PEPFAR to address vulnerability of women and
girls; /*

*/strikes the abstinence-until-marriage earmark./*

*/Widespread Support from Local, State and National Organizations./*//

(Washington, D.C.) Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA) and 53 other members
of Congress—including Representatives Jim Leach (R-IA), Carolyn Maloney
(D-NY), James Moran (D-VA) and Christopher Shays (R-CT) —introduced a
bill today that, if passed, would require all HIV prevention programs
funded by the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) to
address violence against women and other factors fueling the rapid
spread of HIV infections among women and girls. The legislation,
Protection Against Transmission of HIV for Women and Youth Act of 2006
(PATHWAY Act of 2006), also strikes the earmark requiring that 33
percent of all HIV prevention funding be spent on
abstinence-until-marriage programs and ensures that all individuals
reached by US-funded programs are provided with the skills, information,
and methods needed to avoid HIV infection.

“This bill provides an urgently needed correction to PEPFAR prevention
programs,” stated Jodi Jacobson, executive director of the Center for
Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE), a non-governmental organization that
monitors the effects of US global AIDS policies on the health and rights
of women, girls, and other vulnerable populations. “The evidence is
clear,” Jacobson continued: “The highest rates of new infections
throughout sub-Saharan Africa are among women in their twenties and
thirties and among youth ages 15 to 24.”

Congresswoman Lee stated, “There is no reason why someone should be more
vulnerable to AIDS because she is a woman, but the fact remains that
women and girls in developing countries are bearing the brunt of the
global HIV/AIDS pandemic. Our prevention efforts must be sensitive to
the growing gender disparity of this epidemic and must focus on
providing women and girls the education and resources they need to
protect themselves.”

More than 47 local, state and national organizations, including such
groups as the Chicago Foundation for Women, Ohio AIDS Taskforce, Africa
Action, and amfAR The Foundation for AIDS Research and the Episcopal
Church have signed on in support of the legislation.  (A full list of
organizations and members of Congress supporting the legislation, and
the legislation itself, can be found at www.pepfarwatch.org
<http://www.pepfarwatch.org/>).  In addition, an increasing number of
civil society actors in countries affected by this legislation are
speaking out against US prevention policies and their impact on
effective strategies on the ground.

As the recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report confirmed,
restrictions on prevention funding in the original legislation
authorizing PEPFAR are undermining efforts to prevent the greatest
number of infections possible at the country level and are hampering the
development of evidence-based strategies at the field level needed to
respond to local needs.  Among other findings, the GAO concluded that
the abstinence-until-marriage earmark undermined efforts at the country
level to provide integrated programs that best meet the needs of those
at risk of HIV infection, and that the guidance for implementing these
programs is unclear.  (The full GAO report and a summary of findings
from the report can be found at www.pepfarwatch.org
<http://www.pepfarwatch.org/>).

Participants at an international conference on HIV prevention in London
this week expressed their full support for efforts to eliminate funding
restrictions for prevention programs and make them more responsive to
local needs.

“In Zambia, programs funded by the US are actively undermining public
confidence in condoms, and once-comprehensive programs are being
replaced by those that are focused only on abstinence,” noted Vincent
Mwale, Director of Young, Happy, Healthy and Safe, a non-governmental
organization working on sexual and reproductive health among youth.
“This is creating confusing messages, and increasing the stigma we have
worked so hard for many years to erase. The result is that youth are
still sexually active but are increasingly turning away from using
condoms during sex because of the stigma now being associated with them.
This situation is not good for a country in which the current prevalence
rate is 16 percent in the general population.”

Similar concerns were raised by Christabel Ene Unobe of Girls Power
Initiative, Nigeria, and Femi Aina Fasinu, Youth Coalition, Nigeria. “We
know that young people will abstain from sex for a while,” observed
Unobe, “but we also know that eventually they become sexually active.
They need to be prepared for when they do so. Yet in Nigeria, we are
seeing a resurgence of very conservative approaches to sex and to
prevention programs, with strong support from PEPFAR.  This has led to
the elimination of comprehensive programs in schools, and also legal
restrictions on advertisements for condoms in public places.  At the
same time, we are seeing unintended pregnancies on the rise, and HIV
infections at very high rates among youth.”  Fasinu asserted that “under
PEPFAR programs, young people in Nigeria are getting mixed information
on how to protect themselves, leading to confusion.”

Similar comments on US policy came from other regions.  Svenn Grant of
the YMCA of Trinidad and Tobago, noted that “The US is very influential
on many levels in the politics and society of Trinidad and Tobago.  We
had a wholistic health and family life education program, created and
approved by the government.  Now this has been postponed because off the
perceived importance of abstinence-based programs coming from the United
States.”

“Both the GAO report and numerous independent country reports underscore
the extent to which US policies are undermining effective HIV prevention
programs in every region.  Yet people everywhere want access to correct,
consistent information, and to the tools—such as male and female
condoms—they need to protect themselves,” said Jacobson.  “This
legislation seeks to ensure they will get what they need to be safe.”

CHANGE will be leading a grassroots advocacy effort to raise awareness
of the negative effects of the abstinence earmark within PEPFAR and to
highlight voices from the field speaking out about the policy in their
countries and communities.

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