Over the last week, the American people and financial markets around the world watched as Congress debated an eye-popping $700 billion dollar economic rescue for the American economy.  Lost amidst the media's coverage of the rescue plan was another Congressional decision -- to punt to the next President and new Congress tough decisions on funding for most FY 2009 government programs, including foreign assistance. 

As World Watch Institute's latest magazine issue "Population Forum" illustrates, concerted foreign assistance that emphasizes international family planning programs is going to be required to address the nexus of population issues that have emerged -- environmental degradation, climate change, as well as poverty, security and the health of women and children.  However, having worked in Togo, West Africa, an area of the world where hundreds of thousands of women already fail to have their family planning needs met, I'm left to wonder: if the next Administration turns away from our obligations overseas, will foreign assistance and developing world women be the first casualties of the economic downturn?

In recent months, a growing chorus of prominent individuals has been sounding the alarm about an issue that has suffered from bewildering inattention in recent years: the negative impact of rapid global population growth on the health and well-being of our planet.  Although rarely stated directly, implicit in these statements (highlighted below) is that more should be done to support voluntary family planning and basic reproductive health care for millions of poor women who lack it.  Why?  Because lack of family planning is a primary cause of the more than 60 million unintended pregnancies worldwide every year and the resulting yearly net increase in global population of 78 million people.

This morning I attended an extraordinary presentation at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars by Thomas Friedman about his new book, Hot, Flat and Crowded.  As you might suspect from the catchy title, the book focuses on how "global warming, the stunning rise of middle classes all over the world, and rapid population growth have converged in a way that could make our planet dangerously unstable." [See p. 5 @
http://www.thomaslfriedman.com/bookshelf/hot-flat-and-crowded]

In recent months, Friedman's been joined in bringing attention to the role of population growth in such critical issues as poverty, climate change, hunger, and security by the Secretary General of the U.N., the director of the CIA, former President Bill Clinton, the leaders of the G-8, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, and the United States Senate.

Under the Constitution and our system of government as it has evolved over the more than 200 years of the country's history, the President has been vested with a number of powers and authorities by which he can imprint his stamp on the interactions of the United States with the rest of the world, including through development and humanitarian assistance. As a result, who occupies the White House can greatly affect what policies govern international family planning and reproductive health (FP/RH) programs and how much money is spent on these critical health activities. The President matters. 

The fact that the President matters is nowhere more obvious in the policymaking arena, in two ways -- either through promulgation of policy directives himself or in interpreting and enforcing the laws passed by Congress.

"We need to be clear that this is the best researched disease in history. We know what to do to prevent HIV infection, but we're not drawing a straight line between what we know and what we do," stated Elizabeth Pisani, author of The Wisdom of Whores: Bureaucrats, Brothels, and the Business of AIDS.

This session, sponsored by the Caucus for Evidence-Based Prevention, was a frank discussion among advocates, framed around Pisani's idea of the "sacred cows of HIV" (an analogy taken from drivers in India swerving to avoid cows in the road). What are the "sacred cows" standing in the way of progress in the fight against AIDS?

Chris Henderson is PAI's summer 2008 Development Intern.

Attending Craig Lasher's presentation on modernizing U.S. Foreign Aid was yet another thought provoking PAI brown bag, adding to the cornucopia of great opportunities us interns have experienced during our short duration here. I want to revisit a topic that undermines the efforts Craig spoke of about modernizing foreign assistance, that Carlos Indacochea, a recent addition to PAI's research department, so eloquently brought to our attention. One of how to convince the American populous that foreign assistance should regain comprehensive support among both policy makers and those who elect them.

Within the next few weeks, the President will sign the Tom Lantos and Henry J Hyde United States Global Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Reauthorization Act of 2008 into law.  This reauthorization will extend the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) for another five years and provide unprecedented levels of funding to fight the global AIDS pandemic.

Unfortunately, the passage of the Reauthorization Act is bittersweet as it not only fails to address the ideological policies of the 2003 Global AIDS Leadership Act, but in many cases has even expanded their impact. One of these ideological policies is the so-called "conscience clause," which allows organizations who have a moral or religious objection to opt-out of providing services to which they may object. In the 2003 Act, the clause was limited to objections over HIV prevention or treatment programs, thereby allowing faith-based and other organizations to promote the A(abstinence) and B (be-faithful) of ABC, without fear of retribution or loss of funds for not providing the comprehensive information needed to prevent sexual transmission of HIV.

Katie Bolton is PAI's summer 2008 Social Networking Intern.

Feminist Majority Foundation (FMF) president Eleanor Smeal wants women to get angry. "It's a pattern... Family planning is being cut," she declared Thursday morning at the FMF's Intern Hill Briefing, "Saving Women's Lives: The Importance of Funding for Reproductive Healthcare." And she's right. The Bush administration has systematically reduced women's access to birth control, sexually transmitted infection (STI) testing, and pre- and post-natal care both domestically and internationally since coming into power. USAID funds for reproductive health have been dramatically reduced. Birth control prices skyrocketed for students and low-income women in 2007. Nineteen million unsafe abortions are performed worldwide each year, and 68,000 women die following their unsafe abortion. In the past seven years, there have been more than 175 votes in Congress that have chipped away at our right to basic reproductive health services.

PAI's U.S. Government Relations Team wrote this report.

On Thursday, July 10, PAI and a coalition of more than a dozen partner organizations, including the United Nations Foundation, the Centre for Development & Population Activities (CEDPA), the Communications Consortium Media Center, the Global Health Council, and the Sierra Club, joined with family planning champions Representatives Betty McCollum (D-MN) and Russ Carnahan (D-MO) to host a congressional briefing commemorating the 21st annual World Population Day.  This year’s World Population Day theme of “Plan Your Family: Plan Your Future,” highlighted the 40th anniversary of world leaders first declaring that individuals have a basic human right to freely and responsibly determine how many children to have and when to have them.   

The congressional briefing, attended by over 60 advocates and congressional staff, featured remarks by Rep. McCollum, a member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee that funds use foreign assistance; Rep. Carnahan, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee; Margaret Neuse, the former Director of USAID’s Office of Population & Reproductive Health; and CEDPA field partners Asih Puji Rahayu (Foundation for Mother and Child Health in Jakarta, Indonesia) and Marilyn Peri (Community Based Health Care in Papua New Guinea).  Moderated by PAI’s Vice President for Government Relations, Tod Preston, the forum provided a timely opportunity for panelists and guests to highlight the need for increasing U.S. funding for international family planning and reproductive health.

You may have heard that the Bush administration is once again withholding funding for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).  Because UNFPA provides funding for health services -- including voluntary family planning -- in China, where the government maintains a “one-child policy,” the Bush administration decided Thursday to unjustly withhold U.S. funding to UNFPA, as it has for the last seven years. That’s no surprise (and it’s barely even news-worthy), though it is disappointing.  Contrary to the administration’s assertions, UNFPA provides alternative and voluntary approaches to China’s compulsory family planning program.
 
But you may have missed the potentially even bigger news.  Now the Bush administration has threatened to dramatically expand the interpretation of the Kemp-Kasten amendment, which until now has been limited only to UNFPA, to also cut off funding to other organizations solely because they operate health programs in China. Buried in the statement released by Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte is the following ominous warning:

Ellen Knickmeyer’s article “Egypt’s President Urges Family Planning” (June 11) effectively highlights the challenges that continued population growth can pose for countries’ development by increasing demands for jobs, food and education. 

It has been shown the world over that investing in women is essential to the well-being of families, communities and nations.  As Egypt’s president has recognized, voluntary family planning results in smaller families and is a cost-effective means to ease demographic pressures.

Numbers: Billions, trillions, ga-zillions. When's a number too big, too little, appropriate, effective? I mean, who gets numbers?

It's like gaggles of 3rd graders accelerating every conversation with their own numerical system:
"My dad has a million!"
"My mom saw a ka-zillion in New Jersey!"
"Well, I'm gonna have a ka billion ga zillion when I grow up!"

What would the grown up version be?
"Before you know it, she'll want a googol (10 followed by 100 zeros) of 'em!"

Even smart adults struggle with really big numbers. Particularly as they relate to money, people and sex. Trillions of dollars, billions of people, oh yeah, and sex - the multiplier.

Read more of Amy's third blog entry for The Huffington Post!

“Birthrates Help Keep Filipinos in Poverty” – that’s the headline of an April 21, 2008 Washington Post article highlighting the plight of a growing number of poor women in the Philippines who lack access to one of the most basic forms of health care: family planning (FP) and reproductive health services. The article, which mentions that the U.S. is scaling down its FP program in the Philippines, should be a wake-up call for policymakers about the global impact of declining FP assistance on the lives of hundreds of millions of men and women in the Philippines and other developing nations.

U.S. investments in international family planning have been one of the most successful and cost-effective ways to improve maternal and child health, ease population pressures on the environment, and help countries fight poverty. But despite the achievements of recent decades -- including an increase in use of contraceptives among married women in the developing world from 10 percent to 60 percent since 1960 and a decline in average fertility rates from about six children per woman to three children per woman -- significant needs remain. For example, only one-third of married Filipino women use modern contraceptives.

Yesterday the House Foreign Affairs Committee approved a bill to reauthorize the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Now the bill will move to the House floor -- as soon as next week. In the meantime, check out these news clips with more information and various perspectives on the bill.

PEPFAR Wins Money, Compromises Principle
RH Reality Check - Washington, DC, USA
The moment to improve PEPFAR based on reality and public health passed before the House Foreign Affairs Committee was ever convened. Americans frustrated with political game playing over dedicated problem solving will see this as one more reason Washington must change...

House Foreign Affairs Committee Approves PEPFAR Reauthorization Bill
Kaiser network.org - Washington, DC, USA
President Bush had called on Congress to authorize a $30 billion, five-year extension of PEPFAR. The bill also would remove a requirement that at least ...

The House Committee of Foreign Affairs is poised to mark-up a bill that will reauthorize the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and correct the critical flaws in the existing program, which hinder its effectiveness. The new bill will provide greater access to contraceptives for HIV-positive women who desire to space and plan their births, as well as increase effectiveness and flexibility in the fight against HIV/AIDS by striking PEPFAR's restriction that mandates at least one-third of U.S. HIV/AIDS prevention funding be limited to abstinence-only programs