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IMF Urges 'Global Action' on AIDS

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By Harry Dunphy

Associated Press
April 30, 2001

World finance leaders recognized for the first time there was a ''need for global action'' in the fight against AIDS and other infectious diseases. But the United States has reservations about whether such an effort can succeed. The finance ministers and central bank governors also agreed at their weekend meetings to look for an improved early warning system to prevent future financial crises and voiced optimism that the current global economic slowdown will not be an extended one.


Britain's chancellor of the exchequer Gordon Brown, who is also chairman of the International Monetary Fund's policy-setting group, said Sunday that the exact amount of money needed for the new health effort has yet to be determined. It is expected to be in the billions of dollars. The IMF group's communiqué said it welcomed the cooperation of the fund and its sister institution, the World Bank, on ''the need for global action on health to address diseases such as the HIV/AIDS pandemic.''

Brown said this weekend's communiqués were the first reference to need for an effort to combat AIDS and diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis. He said that agreement on the effort was likely to be reached at the annual economic summit of the United States and six other major industrialized nations in Genoa, Italy, in July.

A senior US Treasury official, briefing reporters on condition of anonymity, said the Bush administrations was interested in the proposal but wanted to make sure such an effort would ''accomplish real change for real people'' in countries where these diseases are prevalent. In Africa, for example, he wondered whether health systems had the capability to administer retroviral drugs to AIDS patients on a daily basis.

Talks on the health initiative, expanding basic education programs in poor countries and qualifying more of these nations for debt relief will continue Monday as ministers from the 24-nation Development Committee hold sessions at the World Bank

IMF Deputy Managing Director Stanley Fischer said a $10 billion financial rescue package for Turkey also could be announced as soon as Monday with support for Argentina coming ''a day or two later.'' The international financial community wants to bring financial crises in these countries under control to prevent them from spilling over to other nations and putting a drag on prospects for global economic recovery.

As the IMF was concluding its discussions, about 200 protesters with banners and puppets demanded that the financial institutions work to erase poor countries' debts. The peaceful nature of the rally and the size of the crowd _ was in sharp contrast to the protest at last spring's IMF-World Bank meetings when police used pepper spray to subdue demonstrators and arrested more than 1,200 people.

Prodded by the Bush administration, the IMF endorsed a program to establish better procedures to prevent a repeat of the 1997-1998 Asian currency crisis that plunged two-fifths of the world into recession. The IMF's policy-setting committee approved a nine-page statement declaring that ''strong and effective crisis prevention'' should be a top priority for the agency.

The IMF's policy-setting International Monetary and Financial Committee, composed of officials from the 183-nation lending agency, accepted recommendations on crisis prevention that had been put forward by the Bush administration.

US Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill has voiced criticism with the IMF's handling of the Asian currency crisis, which plunged a number of countries into steep recessions and forced the agency to assemble more than $100 billion in rescue packages. O'Neill told the gathering Sunday that improved early warning procedures should mean that the IMF will have to respond ''less frequently because it has succeeded in preventing crisis from developing in the first place.''

Echoing the view of finance ministers and central bank presidents from the world's seven richest countries, the IMF policy panel said it was optimistic that the current global slowdown would not be an extended one. ''While we recognize that the short-term prospects have weakened considerably, we believe the slowdown will be short-lived,'' Britain's Brown said.

Responding to the concerns raised by protesters, the IMF panel endorsed proceeding with efforts to cut the debts of the world's poorest countries and opened the door for greater reductions down the road to countries where civil conflicts are ending.

Seth Amgott, a spokesman for the international relief organization Oxfam, which has been promoting debt forgiveness, said ''the ministers recognized that there is a problem with the extent of debt relief and we look forward to them deciding to do something about it in the future.'' He said one-third of the 22 countries already granted relief have not seen substantial savings that they can use for schools or health clinics or anything else.


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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.