[stop-imf] How the IMF Undermines the Fight Against HIV/AIDS - new policy briefing

[robert weissman]

Blocking Progress_: How the Fight against HIV/AIDS is being
Undermined by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund=94

A new policy briefing by ActionAid International **USA**, Global AIDS
**Alliance**, Student Global AIDS Campaign, and RESULTS Educational Fund
is now available: http://www.actionaidusa.org/blockingprogress.pdf

Is the International Monetary Fund more concerned with
keeping inflation low and maintaining =93macroeconomic stability=94 than
enabling governments in poor countries to save lives impacted by the
HIV/AIDS pandemic?/*

Why are more than 4,000 trained nurses and thousands other
health workers in /**/Kenya/**/ sitting unemployed when they should be
working to combat the HIV/AIDS emergency in their country? /*

In advance of the Annual Fall Meetings of the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, a new report accuses the IMF of
undermining the fight against AIDS.  The report by four humanitarian
agencies says that despite the severity of the AIDS crisis, IMF
restrictions on public spending in poor countries are making it
difficult for countries to hire more doctors, nurses, and health
workers, as well as to buy the medicines required to fight the HIV/AIDS
pandemic effectively.  The IMF=92s spending constraints may also block
poor countries from accepting desperately-needed outside help.  In
2002-2003, for example, the African nation of Uganda, which faces a
major AIDS crisis,  nearly rejected a $52 million grant from the /Global
Fund to Fight AIDS, TB & Malaria /because it sought to stay within the
strict budgetary constraints it had agreed to maintain in order to
acquire loans from the IMF.

At the recent international AIDS Conference in Bangkok, United Nations
experts called for a massive increase in financing for AIDS programs,
urging that $20 billion be provided to developing countries by 2007. The
report argues that IMF policies that seek to keep inflation at very low
levels do so at the cost of blocking higher public spending on fighting
AIDS.  But the report notes that many economists think inflation and
public spending could go higher, and therefore IMF policies are
unjustifiably undermining the global fight against AIDS.

"This report should be real wake-up call to people concerned about the
alarming impact of AIDS on prospects for development and stability,"
stated Dr. Paul Zeitz, Executive Director of the Global AIDS Alliance.
"It shows the terrible price we could pay if a rigid adherence to
economic orthodoxy wins out over common sense."

"The IMF's insistence on very low inflation targets must be
scrutinized," said the report's principle author, Rick Rowden, of
ActionAid International USA. "This issue must be brought into the center
of public debate if countries are ever to be allowed to scale-up public
health spending effectively to fight HIV/AIDS."

The report also argues that the IMF policies make it more difficult for
countries to retain critically-important health care workers, as a
result of the IMF's caps on the amount of money countries can spend for
public health sector employees.

The low-inflation targets set by the IMF lead directly to limits on the
national budgets of poor countries, which lead to ceilings on national
health budgets. =93Most poor countries would like to significantly
increase spending on fighting AIDS,=94 says Joanne Carter, Legislative
Director of RESULTS Educational Fund, a US-based citizens lobby group
that focuses on combating tuberculosis and other =93diseases of poverty=94
in developing countries.  =93But they have given up trying to fight
against the IMF because they know that they must comply with IMF loans
just to keep their access to the current levels of foreign aid they are
already receiving.  If you go against the IMF, you risk getting cut-off
from all other sources of foreign aid.=94

Speaking at the World Bank in November 2003, UNAIDS Executive Director
Peter Piot stated, =93When I hear that countries are choosing to comply
with the=85[budget] ceilings at the expense of adequately funding AIDS
programs, it strikes me that someone isn=92t looking hard enough for sound
alternatives.=94

The report notes that because the IMF is basically unaccountable to
citizens of any one country, citizens must call on their own governments
to ensure that the decisions they make on the IMF Board of Executive
Directors do not undermine the fight against HIV/AIDS.  The four groups
call on AIDS activists and health professionals concerned with combating
the spread of HIV/AIDS to address this issue of ceilings on public
spending in developing countries with their own Finance Ministries or
Treasury Departments, which dispatch representatives to the IMF
Executive Board.  =93Citizens should call for their own governments to
take steps at the IMF board to change the low-inflation targets that are
conditions in IMF loans that unnecessarily constrain health spending in
countries with AIDS emergencies,=94 said co-author Adam Taylor, founder of
the US university-based Student Global AIDS Campaign.

The report highlights that citizens of the seven wealthiest,
industrialized countries (G7), whose governments have the most influence
on the IMF Executive Board, have a special obligation to call on their
Finance Ministries or Treasury Departments to take immediate action on
the issue.  Paul Zeitz of Global AIDS Alliance said, =93US citizens have
the biggest responsibility to call on the US Treasury Department to take
immediate steps at the IMF to abolish the IMF=92s low-inflation targets
that are limiting spending on HIV/AIDS in the world=92s poorest
countries.  The US Treasury Department must act now if the countries are
to be enabled to significantly increase their own spending and accept
more foreign aid in order to scale-up the fight against HIV/AIDS.=94

The policy briefing will be released at a special Teach-In for AIDS
Activists and NGOs at the 4^th Floor offices of the UN Foundation at
1225 Connecticut Avenue NW Washington DC on Thursday evening September
30^th from 5-7pm.  Media are welcome to attend and pose questions.

*Rick Rowden, ActionAid International *USA   RickR@actionaidusa.org
<mailto:RickR@actionaidusa.org>

*Joanne Carter, RESULTS Educational Fund   carter@results.org
<mailto:Carter@results.org> *

*Paul Zeitz, Global AIDS *Alliance  pzeitz@globalaidsalliance.org
<mailto:pzeitz@globalaidsalliance.org>

*Adam Taylor, Student Global AIDS Campaign   adamrtaylorgj@yahoo.com
<mailto:adamrtaylorgj@yahoo.com> *

Click here for the policy briefing:
http://www.actionaidusa.org/blockingprogress.pdf *