USA/Africa: Underfunding Global Health
By William Minter | 10 May 2009
President Obama’s global health budget plan, pegged at $63 billion over six years and announced on May 5, one day in advance of the full budget statement, met with predictably mixed responses. The administration spin was that it was a major new commitment to a comprehensive approach; health activist groups charged that it actually marked a cut from prior commitments made in campaign promises and by Congressional pledges.
Both, of course, could find numbers to bolster the contradictory spins, although administration efforts echoed previous Bush administration budget public relations tactics. Lost in the back-and-forth, however, was the undeniable fact that, compared to the acknowledged needs, all sources of global health funding still fell far short. With both rich and poor countries facing the current world recession, the temptation is to pit funding for specific diseases against funding for comprehensive health systems, rather than to continue to ramp up commitments on all fronts. The World Bank warned that as many as 22 countries could face interruption of current AIDS treatment programs, and activists warned that international agencies were downplaying previous commitments to ensure universal access.
This AfricaFocus Bulletin contains a statement by African health activist groups directed to the annual meeting of African Health Ministers held in Addis Ababa earlier this month, two press releases from U.S. groups contrasting the Obama budget proposal with previous commitments, and excerpts from a background paper on health financing prepared for the African Health Ministers meeting.