Monitoring Policy Making at the United Nations |
| ||||||||||||
US Aid Well Spent in Africa - UN Finance - Global Policy Forum US Aid Well Spent in Africa
Chicago Tribune
May 27, 2002Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill and Irish rocker Bono look so strange together that their four-country African tour almost resembles a comedy act.
Ever formal in a coat and tie, O'Neill stands around like central casting's foil to Bono's crawled-out-of-bed style. Their mission is far from comedic. It focuses attention on the AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria epidemics that ravage Africa with the ferocity of a biblical plague, killing tens of millions -- including about 20 per cent of children under age 15 -- and along with them hopes of a better future.
How can poverty ever be reduced when diseases continue to mow down, scythe-like, the continent's best hope, its young?
The Bono-O'Neill tour comes at a critical time for other reasons. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has called for developed nations to pitch in to a nearly $2 billion Global AIDS Fund that will target all three diseases.
Faced with the African tragedy -- and worries that widespread hopelessness in the developing world might engender more terrorist fever -- Congress is disposed to rethink the aid cutbacks that began with the end of the Cold War.
An amendment to a supplemental defence appropriations bill would provide $600 million for the United Nations' global fund and some bilateral programs, in addition to the $100 million previously earmarked.
Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., historically one of the harshest critics of U.S. foreign aid, has introduced very similar legislation, and the two efforts may be meshed later this week.
Compassion -- and the interests of the United States -- argue in favour of this effort.
Even Americans fed up with failed foreign aid programs ought to be able to understand -- with their hearts and their minds -- the urgent need for this effort.
More Information on UN Finance
More Information on UN Programmes, Funds and Specialized Agencies
FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Global Policy Forum distributes this material without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. We believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
