Part of Bush AIDS initiative announced

The Washington Post reports that the Bush administration is starting to put some money where its mouth is on its AIDS initiative by announcing details, albeit vague ones, of a five-year plan to combat the disease, including the approval of $350 million in grants to religious groups and humanitarian organizations.

While this plan is the "largest commitment undertaken by a nation on a health issue," according to Post reporter Robin Wright, AIDS groups are criticizing it because, while focusing on Southern Africa and a few nations in the Caribbean, no money is allocated towards China and Russia, two nations where the number of AIDS cases promises to rise dramatically in coming years.

Yet, the issue that seems most controversial is that the US is trying to funnel money directly to programs that encourage "abstinence, fidelity and condom use," thus bypassing the Global AIDS Fund. Says the Post:

[A]IDS advocacy groups criticized the Bush administration for cutting back the U.S. contribution to the Global AIDS Fund by about 64 percent in the new budget, despite its pledge to collaborate with the international community on a joint strategy. Congress allocated $547 million for the fund in 2004; the administration's 2005 budget calls for $200 million.

"The big issue in this report is the ideological battle underway: Whether the United States should program money through a go-it-alone approach or work through the Global AIDS Fund," said Paul Zeitz, executive director of the Global AIDS Alliance. "While recognizing the problem in 14 countries, they're actually making the problem worse by setting up a parallel program rather than working through existing partnerships that are already up and running."

So with one hand the administration is promising $350 million of new funding; with the other, it has cut $347 million from arguably the most effective AIDS program in existence. The reality of the situation is that hardly any new money is being allocated.

The reasons for this are clear. Rather than addressing the AIDS catastrophe via the existing channels, the Bush administration seems to be letting its ideology, which emphasizes conservative sexual mores and faith-based services, color how it's going about this fight against AIDS.

I can only say that, with so much at stake over the coming decades, this is hardly an issue to be playing political games with.