Article: CCA Report Says Partnerships Needed to Fight HIV/AIDS in Africa

17 October 2001

Article: CCA Report Says Partnerships Needed to Fight HIV/AIDS in Africa

Tempelsman favors Bush's coalition approach

By Jim Fisher-Thompson
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- Just as President Bush is fighting terrorism through international partnerships, the challenge of a spreading HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa must also be met with a coalition of forces from government, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and the private sector, according to recent findings by the Corporate Council On Africa (CCA).

Releasing the 60-page "Report of the Findings of the Corporate Council on Africa's Task Force on HIV/AIDS" at a luncheon at the National Press Club in Washington October 12, CCA Chairman Maurice Tempelsman first referred to the September terrorist attacks in New York City and on the Pentagon that left more than 5000 people dead. He said, "Our mettle as a nation is being tested in a way none of us foresaw. Life will go on, but we will have to make adjustments and learn to deal with it."

In a similar light, Tempelsman said, "AIDS was and continues to be one of the most dangerous and important challenges to humanity in general and to Africa in particular. And the efforts that were made in the past ... to make AIDS a security issue" for the United States "must be continued."

Tempelsman said he was confident that the struggles against terrorism and AIDS would be met effectively by a partnership of American institutions. "I think it is in the nature of our nation and business community to look at things in a solution-oriented way: You have a problem. You identify the problem, mobilize the resources, and try to form as big a coalition as you can" to combat it.

Among the recommendations to its 170 member firms doing, or seeking to do business in Africa, the CCA AIDS report suggests "forming partnerships with local communities, NGOs, governments at all levels, intergovernmental organizations, and other businesses. Be creative in forming partnerships to insure that initiatives are inclusive, and have antennae raised to detect conflicts and unforeseen problems."

Joe Sills, a former United Nations diplomat who is the co-chairman of the CCA AIDS Task Force, said "an excellent example" of such a partnership was the one formed in July 2000 by the pharmaceutical company Merck, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the government of Botswana "with the goal of insuring that effective prevention, care, and treatment programs reached all of its HIV/AIDS-infected citizens."

Stressing that within that effort, "government must take the leadership role," Sills told his business audience: "Don't lose sight that AIDS is a security issue. Don't let it get shoved into the conceptual framework of just another foreign aid program."

Dr. Jeffrey Sturchio, Merck & Company's executive director for public affairs for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, told the gathering: "Everyone has a stake in responding to the AIDS epidemic -- the governments most directly affected, donor governments like our own, and civil society organizations of all kinds -- foundations, non-governmental organizations, and, as this important new report from the Corporate Council on Africa makes clear, private sector enterprises large and small."

As a part of the "Botswana Comprehensive HIV/AIDS Partnership" that Sills mentioned, Sturchio said, "the Gates Foundation and Merck have each committed cash contributions of $50 million over five years. In addition, Merck will supply at no charge to the government of Botswana whatever is required in the way of Merck's antiretrovirals, CRIXIVAN and STOCRIN. Other partners in the project include Boehringer-Ingelheim, Unilever PLC, and the Harvard AIDS Institute, and discussions are under way with other partners."

Quelling fears that the U.S. war on terrorism would detract from America's commitment to help Africans battle AIDS, U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Andrew Natsios told journalists recently: "I met with 10 African ambassadors for sub-Saharan Africa ... to talk about the USAID HIV/AIDS program on that continent. It is a horrendous pandemic devastating that part of the world and USAID has a huge program [there] to try to prevent the spread of the disease."

Natsios said he assured the African ambassadors: "We continue to be committed. There will be no cutback of any kind, not only in Africa," but in other parts of the world as well. "We couldn't reallocate the resources anyway from Africa because by statute we have to spend the money that's appropriated for Africa" by Congress.

Since 1986 the U.S. government has devoted more than $1,600 million helping combat HIV/AIDS in more than 60 countries. In the budget year 2000-2001, the money Congress allocated to USAID for the international war on AIDS increased to $320 million, almost double the previous year's budget. During that period, USAID funded AIDS prevention, care, and treatment programs in 21 nations in Africa worth $144.8 million.