Golden Opportunity to Correct PEPFAR's Fatal Flaw

Washington, DC - June 4, 2007

PAI was thrilled to hear President Bush announce last week that he is requesting an additional 30 billion in funding for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) over the next five years.  This historic effort has enormous potential to save millions of lives.

To be successful, PEPFAR must coordinate with family planning and reproductive health programs, which should be fully funded—and not become a casualty of these laudable efforts to combat HIV.  And misguided policies—if allowed to continue uncorrected—are PEPFAR's fatal flaw.  For example, PEPFAR’s current prevention efforts are stymied by a spending requirement that forces one-third of all prevention funding into “abstinence-until-marriage” programs.  Only by overturning this one-size-fits-all prescription can PEPFAR live up to its potential to curb the spread of this epidemic. This is just one of the policies that need to be addressed as we move into the next phase of the U.S. response to the global AIDS pandemic.

PAI’s Vice President for Public Policy Terri Bartlett responded to President Bush’s announcement: “We welcome this news and urge Congress to take up the challenge but to take the opportunity to make PEPFAR much more effective by correcting policies on the basis of evidence, not ideology.”  By overturning the “abstinence-until-marriage” spending constraint, PEPFAR recipient "focus countries" will be better able to target how HIV/AIDS is striking their particular local populations and meet their evolving needs to protect themselves from this epidemic.

PEPFAR currently provides live-saving treatment to approximately 1.4 million people, a number that is projected to increase to 2.5 million people with this increase in funding.  However, even more lives can be saved if these treatment programs are combined with comprehensive, evidence-based prevention policies and work in concert with existing—and future—family planning and reproductive health programs.

As Congress reviews PEPFAR and prepares to take up its reauthorization, we urge them to take the time to really review the program’s prevention policies to ensure that people have access to the quality education, services and supplies necessary to protect themselves.  We have the opportunity to stop HIV/AIDS in its tracks; let's not waste it.

Population Action International (PAI) works to improve individual well-being and preserve global resources by mobilizing political and financial support for population, family planning and reproductive health policies and programs.