Pep Up PEPFAR
Good friend of The Lancet Student, Stephanie Devita from the Universities Coalitions for Global Health (UCGH), tells us more about the “Pep up PEPFAR” campaign. Also, check out UCGH’s new website. It has tons of information about student advocacy and examples of campaigning activities for students to do on their own campuses. But enough of me. Over to Stephanie- Rhona 
Hi All! As many of you know it’s now time to “Pep Up PEPFAR” because the program is up for reauthorization this spring and we need your help in encouraging congress to keep it going!
What is PEPFAR?
In January 2003 in the State of the Union Address, President Bush unveiled his new initiative to address the global AIDS pandemic. A few months later Congress passed the United States Leadership Against HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria Act of 2003, which lead to the creation of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (commonly known at PEPFAR).
This initiative was intended to prevent 7 million new HIV infections, treat 2 million people living with AIDS and provide care for over 10 million people affected by AIDS. It authorized the President to spend up to $15 billion over 5 years (from 2004-2008) to combat the disease in 15 different focus countries.
While this program has become arguably one of the best achievements of the Bush administration, it also includes many restrictions. Some of these restrictions include, abstinence only prevention funding earmarks, limitations to organizations working with commercial sex workers and it will not fund safe needle exchange programs for intravenous drug users.
Reauthorization
The PEPFAR legislation will expire in 2008 and that means that Congress must reauthorize the program for an additional five years to continue the work that has been started. This provides us with the opportunity to remove restrictive polices and increase the budget in order to maintain and expand existing programs.
In May 2007 President Bush announced his intention to double the initiative’s budget to $30 billion to cover the next five years (2008-2013). Given that the budget for Financial Year 2008 is expected to be at least $5.4 billion, the commitment of $30 billion over the following five years is a flat funding. This means that no new money will be put into PEPFAR and it will become ineffective and unable to expand.
Pep Up PEPFAR
The reauthorization process begins this year and we need your help to tell Congress “Pep Up PEPFAR”. You can help out by first educating yourself at the links below and then signing this PEPFAR petition. After the new PEPFAR bill is introduced, there will be more to come! Stephanie Devita
For more information on PEPFAR visit:
Petition http://www.globalaidsalliance.org/page/s/pepuppepfar.
The Global Health Council http://www.globalhealth.org/news/article/9188
PEPFAR Watch http://www.pepfarwatch.org/
PEPFAR.gov http://www.pepfar.gov/
Avert http://www.avert.org/pepfar.htm
UCGH http://www.ucgh.org/
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