G-8 SUMMIT: POVERTY AND AIDS

At the July G-8 summit meeting in Genoa, Italy, two of the focal points were poverty alleviation and reaffirming commitment to the Global AIDS fund to slow the spread of the AIDS virus. A July 18 New York Times story reported that President Bush proposed that up to 50 percent of aid to poor countries from the World Bank be given as grants that do not have to be repaid, rather than as "loans that can choke fledgling economies with debt." link

In response, the World Bank's head of media relations said, "We support the idea of increasing resources for poor countries, including grants for basic needs like education and communicable disease, but if it's about grants with no idea about upping the contribution, it's half of the solution that's needed." She was quoted in a July 18 story by The Washington Post.link

SAVING WOMEN'S LIVES

Eradicating poverty is essential to saving women's lives around the world, according to a recent policy research report of the World Bank, which found that women and girls in developing countries carry the burden of poverty, malnutrition, illness and other deprivations. A July 25 story by Business World said the report also concluded that the poorer the country is, the wider the disparity between women and men, and between boys and girls.

[NOTE: To view the World Bank's January 2001 "Engendering Development" report, go to:link

These gender disparities also affect children worldwide: about 2.2 million women and 600,000 infants contract HIV each year. New programs to reduce mother-to-child transmission are underway. In Thailand, a program to test and treat women for HIV reduced the risk of mother-to-child transmission by two thirds, offering a model for other developing nations, according to the Center for Disease and Control and Prevention, quoted in a July 19 story by the Associated Press. Zimbabwe is working to bring the two-pill regimen of Nevirapine to the southern African country's 26 birthing clinics to save some of the 60,000 children at risk a year, according to a July 29 story by The San Francisco Chronicle. The BBC Worldwide Monitor reported July 30 that Vietnam also plans to implement methods similar to those used in Zimbabwe's program to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission. link

AIDS: RELIGION AND PREVENTION

As AIDS continues to kill millions of people in Africa, Catholic bishops there debated the church's longstanding ban on the use of condoms. The Southern African Catholic Bishop's Conference concluded that the widespread promotion of condom use was "an immoral and misguided weapon in our battle against HIV/AIDS," according to a July 30 story by the Associated Press and Reuters. The sole exception for allowable condom use could be by married couples if one or both were infected and they abstained from sex while the woman was ovulating, said the bishops' statement, read by Cardinal Wilfrid Napier. "This is one possibility during which the condom could be used in a morally responsible situation," Napier said.

In an effort to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS, the Kenyan government announced plans to import 300 million condoms, The Los Angeles Times reported in a July 15 story. "We can't afford to lose this war," said director of the National AIDS Control Council in a July 31 story disseminated by Africa News. "Not when it's killing 700 people daily, while more than 2.5 million Kenyans are infected and 1.5 million dead."

The St. Petersburg Times featured a July 27 story on the development of microbicides as an alternative to condoms,- an inexpensive microbe-killing vaginal gel to protect women from AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections. "A protective gel or cream that a woman could apply without her partner's knowledge would seem to be a promising alternative to condom use, both in the United States and abroad," said an expert from the Alliance for Microbicide Development. link

A July 31 story by the Associated Press reported that Stephen Lewis, a United Nations special envoy, said Nigeria is combating its AIDS epidemic by launching the largest AIDS treatment program in Africa, distributing cheap generic drugs to 10,000 women and 5,000 children. "It's a quite extraordinary intervention, a measure of Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo's determination that they maintain the level of the pandemic where it is and try to turn it back," Lewis told a news conference. "They recognize that if Nigeria fails, then much of Africa will fail." link

The World Bank warns that Russia is on the brink of an AIDS crisis. Infected people claim they did not know much about AIDS before getting infected, or say that HIV/AIDS can be acquired "only if you are a drug user." Perhaps because of these stereotypes and dismissive attitudes, "The infection is spreading and it's not just about drug abuse," a head doctor of a local AIDS clinic was quoted as saying in a July 29 Washington Post story. "If you just extrapolate from what we have seen in the last decade, it's going to be a disaster," said the European health care sector manager for the World Bank. "It has the potential to become a huge tragedy." link

OTHER GLOBAL POPULATION COVERAGE

The Washington Post reported July 30 that the Bush administration is making a fundamental change in the way the federal government approaches issues involving reproductive health. It is scaling back efforts to promote family planning and contraception while aggressively promoting "abstinence-only" programs, the story said. A poll released in July 2001 by Americans and the World found that the Bush administration's approach to family planning abroad does not reflect many Americans' attitudes.link ]

[NOTE: To view the poll by Americans and the World, go to: link

Demographics

The United Nations Population Division (UNPD) expects 39 countries to experience a population decline over the next 50 years, even as global population swells to about 9.3 billion. According to a July 25 story by the Detroit News, the number of the world's people over 80 will increase fivefold by 2050, and Japan's population will decline by 50 percent. Joseph Chamie, director of the UNPD, said, "We do not have enough experience to say what happens when a population declines by 50 percent." But he added it would be a mistake to dismiss the projections as merely hypothetical.

In Papua, New Guinea, the population has more than doubled since the nation gained independence from Australia 25 years ago, and now stands at 5.13 million, according to 1990-2000 national census figures. The Associated Press reported on July 26 that observers described the 3.1 percent yearly population growth as "alarming," saying it outstrips the country's gross domestic product and development rates, which in some sectors have regressed.

The Global Gag Rule

On July 26, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee moved to reverse President Bush's ban on providing U.S. aid funds to family planning groups that perform or advocate abortions overseas. According to a July 27 story by Reuters, Republicans did not have the votes in committee to defeat the amendment by Democrats Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Barbara Mikulski of Maryland. "Rather than have a vote and lose in committee, the decision was made to fight this out later," a Republican aide said. The gag rule has already been upheld in the House. link

Environment

A July 19 Seattle Post-Intelligencer story highlighted a recent site visit to Guatemala by delegates from CARE and Population Action International to see first-hand a project that incorporates environmental concerns with family planning. link

OPINIONS AND EDITORIALS

In time for the G-8 summit in Genoa, The New York Times ran a July 17 op ed by Paul O'Neill, Secretary of the Treasury, who said, "There is no more important challenge than improving living standards and eliminating poverty." He concluded that multilateral development banks can be more effective in promoting world economic development by focusing their knowledge and resources on improving the lives of the world's poor. link

The Financial Times featured a July 17 op ed by Gene Sperling, guest scholar at the Brookings Institution, that highlighted lack of access to quality education as the "quiet crisis" of the developing world. He also added that while Catholic groups and family planning organizations spar over funding for international family planning, they can join hands in supporting funding for girls' education - a proven method of promoting smaller, healthier families.

Laura Scott, Assistant Editorial Page Editor of The Kansas City Star wrote on July 26 that "Our superpower is eroding in the key area of preserving the planet." She noted, "The United States has to be engaged, and leading, in resolving these issues, not only because it is a major polluter but also because it is not a desperate nation struggling just to feed its own." link

On July 16, The New York Times ran an op ed by Bates Gill, senior fellow of the Brookings Institution, and Sarah Palmer, virologist at the National Institutes of Health, that addressed China's "astonishing" announcement during June's United Nations General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS that 600,000 people in China have AIDS or are infected with HIV. Gill and Palmer pointed out that like many other countries, China has been slow in facing up to AIDS because of "misconceptions, taboos and outright deceit." Before the country develops effective prevention and education strategies, they concluded, Beijing "must accept the necessity of candor." link  

The above analysis was written by Ketayoun Darvich-Kodjouri and Kathy Bonk at the Communications Consortium Media Center, 1200 New York Avenue, NW, Suite 300, Washington, DC 20005, 202/326-8700.

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