The Global AIDS Alliance Fund is urging all presidential candidates to sign a Presidential Pledge for Leadership on Global AIDS and Poverty.
As of World AIDS Day, December 1, 2007, seven Democratic candidates have signed the pledge: Senators Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Chris Dodd, John Edwards, and Barack Obama; Governor Bill Richardson; and Congressman Dennis Kucinich. And several candidates have begun to release detailed plans for scaling up the US response to global AIDS. The GAA Fund is evaluating these plans, and encouraging Republican candidates to make a public commitment to extending and expanding President Bush’s commitment to fighting global AIDS.
You can help by contacting the candidates and their campaign staff. If they haven't already done so, urge them to sign the GAA Fund's Presidential Pledge. If they've already signed, please thank them and encourage them to issue a concrete plan of action on global AIDS and poverty.
Click here for information on how to contact the presidential campaigns.
Click here for links to the signed candidate pledges.
Presidential Pledge for Leadership on Global AIDS and Poverty
More than 40 million people are living with HIV/AIDS worldwide, and each year more than three million people die from the disease. Basic prevention services reach only a fraction of those at risk, and in some countries less than 10% of orphans left behind by AIDS are getting the care they need. Drug-resistant tuberculosis is a growing global threat that is exacerbated by HIV/AIDS and widespread health worker shortages.
Therefore, in addition to committing to bold and effective policies on AIDS in the United States, I pledge to:
Provide at least $50 billion by 2013 for the global fight against HIV/AIDS, including the US fair-share contribution to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, to increase access to prevention services, provide treatment to one-third of those in need, and increase the number of health workers by at least one million, building local self-sufficiency;
Provide the US share of funding needed to establish universal access to basic education and to provide community-based support, health, and nutrition to the millions of children orphaned and made vulnerable by AIDS;
Support comprehensive policies that support sound public health at home and abroad, including evidence-based HIV/AIDS prevention policies to reach all at-risk populations; programs to prevent violence against women and girls; trade agreements that protect access to generic medicines; and scaled up programs to fight tuberculosis and malaria;
Improve the coordination and effectiveness of US development assistance by exploring the creation of a cabinet-level, poverty-focused development agency; make significant progress toward providing an additional 1% of the US budget to fighting poverty in impoverished countries; and back the elimination of debt for a broader range of countries than have so far been considered eligible for debt relief in order to free up resources to fight AIDS and poverty.
