June 2009: Urge Congress to invest in the Millennium Development Goals
The World Bank estimates that the economic downturn will push an additional 46 million people into poverty in 2009. As the global economy threatens to stall or reverse progress in the fight against poverty, this year will be a critical moment to redouble our commitment to achieving the Millennium Development Goals for the world’s poor. The economic slowdown is a double threat to the poorest, as it both threatens their livelihood directly and puts pressure on donor countries to cut back on investments in foreign aid. This month, critical decisions will be made in Congress about how much of the federal budget should be allocated for effective foreign aid programs to support healthy families, economic opportunity and education for all. While the federal budget and appropriations process can seem distant from the lives of the very poor, the federal budget is fundamentally a moral document &mdashl an expression of our national beliefs and values, and a vision of what we want to achieve in the world. Write letters to your members of Congress, urging them weigh in with the key decision-makers who determine foreign aid funding priorities — the chair (from majority party) and ranking member (from minority party) of the House and Senate Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittees. Ask for their support for global health, economic opportunity, and education priorities for Fiscal Year 2010 (FY10) foreign aid spending bill.
Congress Must Keep Our Commitments to MDG FundingAt the Millennium Summit in 2000, the U.S. pledged support for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to cut extreme poverty and hunger in half by 2015. President Barack Obama has promised to make the MDGs the goals of the United States. In Congressional testimony, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reiterated this commitment, noting that President Obama “has long stressed the importance of working with others to promote sustainable economic development to combat poverty, enhance food and economy security, including by making the millennium development goals America’s goals.” FY 2010 will mark a decade since the MDGs were first adopted, and their achievement will require renewed commitment and more resources to meet the health, economic opportunity, and education needs of the world’s poorest. The foreign aid funding bill, known as the Foreign Operations Appropriations bill, is the most important annual opportunity to increase resources for improving the health and livelihood of the poor. This legislation provides funding for lifesaving, community-stabilizing international health programs, basic education, microfinance, and other development assistance. Each member of Congress can have an important voice in shaping this bill by writing to and speaking with the leaders on the subcommittee as they draft the legislation.
Appropriations RequestsProvide $2.7 billion for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria. The multilateral Global Fund is one of the most effective ways the U.S. invests in global health. Since its creation in 2001, the Global Fund has provided over 2 million people with treatment for AIDS, 4.6 million people treatment for tuberculosis, and helped distribute 70 million mosquito bed nets to prevent malaria. These efforts have helped save 3.5 million lives. By providing our one-third fair share (based on the size of our economy) to the Global Fund, we have been able to leverage contributions from other donor countries to continue to expand the fight against HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria. The most recent round of approved grant funding was the largest ever, so more resources are required to continue the Global Fund’s achievements. Provide $650 million for scaling up critical U.S. supported efforts to control TB. In 2008, the passage of the Tom Lantos and Henry J. Hyde U.S. Leadership Act Against AIDS, TB and Malaria authorized $4 billion in bilateral (country-to-country) TB funding over five years. To reach this authorized level, Congress must begin to scale up TB funding as envisioned in this historic legislation. TB &mdashl the world’s deadliest curable infectious disease among adults &mdashl kills 1.7 million people each year. People living with HIV/AIDS are particularly susceptible to TB infection. The rise of drug-resistant strains of TB is a result of a lack of investment in effective TB control programs. $650 million would put the U.S. on track to meeting the Lantos-Hyde Act funding targets, and achieving the Global Plan to Stop TB. Provide $500 million for microfinance and microenterprise programs, with fifty percent benefiting the very poor as directed by the Microfinance Results and Accountability Act of 2004. Microfinance is a successful, economically sustainable tool to help the very poor (those living on less than $1.25 a day) lift themselves out of poverty and improve the lives of their families. As the economic crisis has shrunk available credit, public investment in microfinance programs for the poorest families is essential to helping them start and expand their own small businesses. Provide $2 billion for basic education funding, with half directed to countries with approved Fast Track Initiative national education plans. Education is one of the most effective ways to fight poverty and disease and promote democracy and development. In much of Africa and in many other poor countries, school fees, and other costs create enormous barriers to accessing education for the poor, girls, the orphaned, and other vulnerable children. The Fast Track Initiative supports poor countries to develop, implement, and monitor bold national education plans to get children in school and helps close financing gaps in countries’ national education budgets. $2 billion is the U.S. fair share of the cost of meeting global Education for All goals. |