[stop-imf] Call to Action for AIDS/Debt March Sept 28 in DC

[Robert Weissman]

***please distribute widely***

CALL TO ACTION

Join hundreds of people in Washington, DC on Saturday, September 28th 
for a Fight Global AIDS and Drop the Debt march. This march will 
coincide with protests against the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and 
the World Bank (WB)--institutions responsible in large part for the 
misery being experienced by countries hard hit by HIV/AIDS. The march 
will begin at the US Treasury--investors in the IMF/WB and architects of 
its policies. The march will end at the Ellipse where thousands of 
people will be gathered for a rally organized by the Mobilization for 
Global Justice (MGJ).

IMF/WB policies have denied people living with HIV/AIDS access to 
affordable health care due to high costs from forced policies of 
privatization and "user fees" for essential services. Additionally, by 
refusing to cancel poor countries' onerous debt, the IMF and WB stand 
responsible for untold deaths due to money being spent on debt repayment 
instead of essential services like health care.


WHAT: Stop Global AIDS and Drop the Debt March

WHERE: Beginning at the US Department of Treasury (15th & G Streets NW) 
in Washington, DC and finishing at the Ellipse, joining thousands of 
people at the MGJ rally.

WHEN: Saturday, September 28th at NOON

WHO: Hundreds of people fed up with the effects of IMF/WB policies 
around AIDS and Debt--activists, people living with HIV/AIDS, students, 
and a 25 foot Coke bottle condemning the company for refusing to provide 
AIDS treatment to their workers

WHY: IMF/WB policies are responsible in large part for the persistence 
of the Global AIDS and Debt crises (see below for reasons why)


While debt continues to impoverish people just trying to survive, and 
while the AIDS crisis continues unabated--killing millions, the IMF and 
WB sit idly by at best and contribute to countless deaths at worst.

It is imperative we show these institutions that their (in)actions are 
unacceptable, and that we will fight their policies every step of the 
way. If you do anything this September, come to Washington, DC and let 
your voice be heard!

Sponsored by:
ACT UP Philadelphia (http://tensegrity.critpath.org/actup)
Health GAP (http://www.healthgap.org)
Jubilee USA Network (http://www.jubileeusa.org)
Student Global AIDS Campaign (http://www.fightglobalaids.org)
Global AIDS Alliance (http://www.stopglobalaids.org)

For further info, contact: Kris Hermes at 215-334-9454 or 
<krishermes@earthlink.net>
---------------------------

THE IMF, WORLD BANK AND THE HIV/AIDS CRISIS:
GOOD REASONS TO JOIN THE FALL PROTESTS AGAINST THE IMF AND WORLD BANK

SEE WWW.GLOBALIZETHIS.ORG FOR PROTEST DETAILS

How does Third World debt affect health care and HIV/AIDS treatment and 
prevention?

In two destructive ways: First, governments with overwhelming foreign 
debt payment obligations must cut back on what they might otherwise 
allocate to the health care sector, including funds that may be used for 
HIV/AIDS prevention -- condoms, HIV testing, posters, STD treatment, 
etc. They are utterly unable to address the challenge of HIV/AIDS 
treatment. Second, export earnings that go to service foreign debts are 
not available to pay for imports of pharmaceuticals, equipment or other 
products.

These problems are severely compounded by structural adjustment policies.

What is structural adjustment, and how does it affect health care expenditures?

As a condition for receiving loans, the International Monetary Fund 
(IMF) and World Bank require countries to adopt austerity programs known 
as structural adjustment. Key structural adjustment measures include: 
privatizing government-owned enterprises and government-provided 
services, slashing government spending, orienting economies to promote 
exports, trade liberalization, higher interest rates, eliminating 
subsidies on consumer items such as foods, fuel and medicines and tax 
increases.

After undergoing severe criticisms for forcing cuts in health care and 
education spending, the IMF and World Bank now insist that their current 
structural adjustment programs carve out social services from mandated 
budget cuts. This is a disputed claim.

The focus on health care spending obscures a more important issue with 
health care provision, Kolko notes. Structural adjustment policies have 
stagnated economic growth and increased income and wealth inequality 
throughout the developing world -- and the resultant poverty has 
severely undermined the standard of living and quality of health care 
for most people in poor countries.

How do fee-for-service plans and privatization affect health care provision?

Not surprisingly, charging for health care limits access. And user fees 
are a central feature of the fee-for-service schemes that the IMF and 
Bank push in their structural adjustment and sectoral adjustment programs.

One World Bank report argued that the pre-1980s policy of many African 
states "to treat [health care] as a right of citizenry and to attempt to 
provide free services to everyone ... prevents the government health 
system from collecting revenues that many patients are both able and 
willing to pay." Another report added, "When a service costs money, 
people will think twice about demanding it."

When the World Bank mandated that Kenya impose charges of US$2.15 for 
STD clinic services, attendance fell 35 to 60 percent, with similar 
results seen throughout the developing world.

What does this mean in people terms?

Here is how Njoki Njoroge Njehû, who is from Kenya and now direct the 50 
Years is Enough campaign, describes her experience: "When I was a young 
girl growing up near  Nairobi, Kenyatta Hospital was the pride of East 
and Central Africa -- a sophisticated regional center of care like, say, 
the Washington Hospital Center."

"When I visited my aunt there in 1997, she was sharing a bed with 
another patient. Most wards have no beds because of lack of resources, 
and all the beds had two people in them. Guards used to check visitors 
to prevent them from bringing food in from the outside; now the guards 
are gone and if you don't bring food your relatives simply won't eat. My 
aunt was lucky that the dollars I brought with me could buy the 
medications she was prescribed, and which we had to purchase elsewhere 
and bring back to the hospital for the nurse to administer. Not everyone 
has relatives in the U.S., or can get to Kenyatta, the best public 
hospital in Kenya -- which is far from being one of the poorest African 
countries."

"In 1981, there were ten thousand people for every doctor in Kenya; by 
1994 that ratio had gone up to nearly 22,000 people for every doctor. In 
Uganda, just to our west, there were 661 people for every hospital bed 
in 1981, while in 1994 there were 1,092 for every bed. In Ghana, a 
country often touted as an example of how structural adjustment can 
work, the percentage of infants with low birth weight has gone from 5% 
in 1988 to 17% in the period of 1992-1995."

Does structural adjustment contribute to the spread of HIV/AIDS?

In the journal AIDS, Dr. Peter Lurie and collaborators argued yes. They 
argued that the displacement of the rural sector under structural 
adjustment programs -- as imports undermine local farmers and the shift 
to large-scale plantations for exports further displaces the rural 
population -- contributes to migration and urbanization. Many men leave 
rural villages for work in big cities or in mines, contract HIV/AIDS 
from casual sex partners or sex workers, and then spread the disease to 
spouses in their home village. The displacement of children and young 
women into the cities has led to a sharp increase in commercial sex work 
and heightened rates of HIV/AIDS.

"The breakdown of health delivery systems that may accompany structural 
adjustment programs also inhibits surveillance and testing for HIV," 
Lurie, et. al. add. "Even HIV screening of blood used for transfusion 
can be limited; in some countries only 50 percent of blood transfusions 
were screened. Funding shortages also encourage the reuse of disposable 
syringes, potentially contributing to HIV transmission."

What are the solutions to these problems?

First, the debts of the poorest countries must be cancelled. Second, the 
structural adjustment package must be scrapped, with countries free to 
pursue policies designed to emphasize building up of the local economy 
and maintaining the government's role in guaranteeing health care and 
other essential services. Third, the World Bank and IMF's emphasis on 
health care privatization and fee for services must be abandoned.

For more information, visit the following web sites:
Health GAP http://www.healthgap.org
Jubilee http://www.jubileeusa.org
SGAC http://www.fightglobalaids.org
GAA http://www.stopglobalaids.org

Protest info:
http://www.globalizethis.org
http://www.abolishthebank.org 

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forward anything from this list without the express permission of the
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