AIDS groups criticize structural adjustment, support HOPE bill

[Robert Weissman <rob@essential.org>]

March 10, 1999
                            
Dear Representative,
                            
As members of community based organizations leading the fight against AIDS
in this country, and as concerned citizens, we, the listed groups, urge
you to support the "HOPE for Africa Act" (H.R. 772). 
                           
This crucial legislation will help sub-Saharan African nations make
life-saving pharmaceuticals available to HIV/AIDS patients, and represents
a practical, cost-effective way to combat the global AIDS crisis. 

In tandem with your support for H.R. 772, we urge you to oppose the
so-called "African Growth and Opportunity Act" (H.R. 434). If
 passed, H.R. 434 would perpetuate a cruel economic policy that ultimately
discourages public investment in social services like healthcare, and thus
is antithetical to addressing the plight of sub-Saharan Africans with
HIV/AIDS. 
                            
As you are surely aware, HIV and AIDS are rampaging throughout sub-Saharan
Africa. While sub-Saharan nations comprise only 10% of the world's
population, they are bearing the tragic burden of 70% of the world’s new
AIDS cases. The World Health Organization reports that of the 14 million
people who have died of AIDS to date, 12 million have come from this
region. In the hardest-hit countries--Botswana, Namibia, South Africa,
Zimbabwe, and Swaziland, infection rates in the 15-49 age group are
running at 25%. In tourist areas such as Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe, the
rates are even higher -- 40%. 
                            
Unfortunately, the effects of this rampaging epidemic are widespread: 
sub-Saharan African economies are already being slowed by the mortality of
men and women of working age, with inevitable repercussions to a global
market economy. It has been widely reported that the possible gains
associated with billions of development dollars invested in Africa over
the past 15 years by industrialized nations have been seriously eroded by
the relentless march of this plague. In the arena of the public health,
AIDS is giving rise to an explosion of such highly contagious diseases as
meningitis and tuberculosis. 
                            
In the absence of either a cure or a vaccine in the foreseeable future, we
ignore the facts of AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa at our peril. This is an
issue of profound importance to all Americans--not only because we have
the resources and the power to make a difference, but also because we live
in a world where interdependence and mutual responsibility are facts of
life. 
                            
We--you--can act: first by opposing H.R.  434. It not only ignores the
AIDS crisis; it requires the President to certify that indebted SSA
countries are complying with their inhumane International Monetary Fund
(IMF) structural adjustment programs.  Compliance forces SSA governments
to direct domestic spending to debt repayment instead of to life-saving
health care and educational initiatives. Indeed, H.R. 434 extends the
"slash public spending" model to all SSA nations wishing to be certified
by the President. 
                            
You can also act by supporting the HOPE for Africa Act (H.R. 772).  The
HOPE for Africa Act provides a combination of aid, debt relief and
policies specifically designed to increase the availability of
life-extending medications to sub-Saharan Africans with HIV/AIDS.  H.R.
772 would prohibit the use of United States funds to undermine any
sub-Saharan African intellectual property or competition policy that seeks
to promote access to pharmaceuticals and other medical technologies, so
long as the legislation or policy complies with the WTO’s agreement on
Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (TRIPS). 

                            
HOPE would create a cooperative relationship between the U.S. and SSA, by
making it U.S. policy to assist sub-Saharan African countries in efforts
to make life-saving medications and medical technologies widely available
through compulsory licensing and parallel importing. 
                          
As organizations leading the domestic fight against AIDS, we strongly urge
you to oppose H.R. 434, and any other Africa bill that would undermine the
development of a sound health policy in SSA.  Worldwide, 14 million people
have already died from AIDS. In the next six years, 13 million will die
from AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa alone. Please support the HOPE for Africa
Act, and join us in mounting an effective response to the AIDS epidemic in
sub-Saharan Africa. 

The ACT-UP Network

 ACT-UP Human Rights
 Project

 ACT-UP New York

 ACT-UP Philadelphia

 ACT-UP Golden Gate

 National Minority AIDS
 Council

 Gay Men’s Health Crisis

 National Association of
 People with AIDS

 People With AIDS
 Health Group

 People With AIDS
 Coalition, New York

 HIV Human Rights
 Project

 HIV Department, Lowell
 Community Health
 Center

 Direct Access
 Alternative Information
 Resources 

 National Native
 American AIDS
 Prevention Center

 AIDS Action

 AIDS Action Baltimore

 AIDS Project Los
 Angeles

 AIDS Treatment Data
 Network

 Housing Works

 Search for a Cure
 Boston

 Sisters Together and
 Reaching, Baltimore

 Youth Outreach
 Adolescent Community
 Awareness Program

 International Gay and
 Lesbian Human Rights
 Coalition

 Mobilization Against
 AIDS

 HIV in Prison
 Committee of California
 Prison Focus