Washington File - March 8, 2000

In testimony March 8 before the Committee on Banking and Financial Services in the U.S. House of Representatives, Thurman told the lawmakers, "My message to you today is not one of hopelessness and desolation.

"On the contrary, I hope to share with you a sense of optimism. For amidst all of this tragedy, there is hope. Amidst this terrible crisis, there is opportunity: the opportunity for us -- working together -- to empower women, to protect children, and to support families and communities throughout the world in our shared struggle against AIDS.

"We know what works," Thurman stressed. "With our partners in Africa we have developed useful knowledge and effective tools" and have designed model programs that work.

"Today, we know how to stem the rising tide of new infections, how to provide basic care to those who are sick, and how to mobilize communities to support the growing number of children orphaned by AIDS," she explained, and went on to praise Uganda and Senegal for their work in fighting the disease.

"Uganda has demonstrated that with strong political commitment and sustained nationwide programs, HIV prevalence can be cut in half. And Senegal has shown that HIV can be stopped in its tracks and prevalence can be kept low."

She quickly added, however, that "there is more, much more that needs to be done if we are to bring these successes to scale."

Thurman reminded the lawmakers that the United States has been the leader in the battle against AIDS.

"Since 1986, this nation has contributed over $1 billion [$1,000 million] to the global fight against AIDS," she noted, and more than 50 percent of those funds have been used to address the epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa. Thurman appeared before the committee as it began to debate legislation that would help create a trust fund that would be administered by the World Bank to combat the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Following is the text of Thurman's remarks, as prepared for delivery: (begin text) Testimony by Sandra Thurman Director, Office of National AIDS Policy Before the House Of Representatives Banking and Financial Services Committee March 8, 2000

Mr. Chairman and other members of the Committee, I am delighted to be with you today to talk about the global AIDS pandemic -- with a special focus on AIDS in Africa. Your interest in addressing this crisis is very much appreciated -- and desperately needed.

I would like to use my time with you to lay out a vivid picture of the scope of this tragedy -- particularly its impact on the stability of families, communities and nations. I would like to share with you some of my experiences with the faces behind these shocking facts. And I would like to outline for you some key components of our enhanced Administration response to this global pandemic.

By any and every measure -- AIDS is a plague of Biblical proportion. And it is claiming more lives in Africa than in all of the wars waging on the continent combined. AIDS is now the leading cause of death among all people of all ages in Africa -- and the progression of this pandemic has outpaced all of our projections. In 1991 the World Health Organization predicted that by 1999 there would be 9 million infected and nearly 5 million deaths in Africa due to AIDS. The resulting numbers are two to three times higher with nearly 24 million infected and 14 million deaths. And yet this war rages on. Each and every day Africa buries 5,500 men, women, and children as a result of AIDS -- and that count will more than double in the next few years. By 2005, it is now projected that more than 100 million people worldwide will have become HIV infected. And unlike other wars -- it is women and children that are increasingly caught in the crossfire of this relentless pandemic.

In Africa, an entire generation of children is in jeopardy. Already, in several sub-Saharan African countries, between one-fifth and one-third of all children have already been orphaned by AIDS. And the worst is yet to come. Within the next decade, more than 40 million children will have lost one or both parents to AIDS. 40 million. That is about the same number as all children in the United States living east of the Mississippi River. Or taken another way, it is almost the same number as all children in public school in this country. Left unchecked, this tragedy will continue to escalate for at least another 30 years.

In just a few short years, AIDS has wiped out decades of hard work and steady progress in improving the lives and health of families throughout the developing world -- infant mortality is doubling, child mortality is tripling, and life expectancy is plummeting by twenty years or more.

AIDS is not just a health issue, it is an economic issue, a fundamental development issue and a security and stability issue.

AIDS is having a dramatic effect on productivity, trade and investment -- striking down workers in their prime, driving up the cost of doing business, impeding trade and investment, and reducing GNP. Professionals have been hit particularly hard in sub-Saharan Africa, including civil servants, engineers, teachers, miners, and military personnel. In Malawi and Zambia, more than 30% of teachers are HIV positive. Some mining firms in South Africa are reporting that nearly half of their workers are infected. And many businesses are hiring at least two workers for every one skilled job, assuming that one will die from AIDS.

According to the Economist magazine, recent studies have found that AIDS is seriously eroding the economies of many of our partner nations. In Namibia, AIDS cost the country almost 8% of its GNP in 1996. By 2005, Kenya's GNP will be over 14% smaller than it would have been without AIDS.

Similarly, in Tanzania, The World Bank has predicted that its GNP will be 15 to 25% lower as a result of AIDS. The South African government has estimated that this epidemic costs the country 1% of its GNP each year, a situation that will only worsen without strong intervention.

AIDS is also affecting security and stability in the region. As Ambassador Holbrooke will discuss shortly, the UN Security Council recently held a daylong meeting on HIV/AIDS. This historic event highlighted the growing awareness that AIDS is a security threat that requires a global mobilization. It is hardly a coincidence that the National Intelligence Council recently released a report on the global infectious disease threat. The Report draws several very disturbing conclusions including the following:

-- Development of an effective global surveillance and response system is at least a decade or more away.

-- The economic costs of infectious diseases -- especially HIV/AIDS -- are already significant and could reduce GDP by as much as 20 percent or more by 2010 in some sub-Saharan countries.

-- Some of the hardest hit countries in sub-Saharan Africa -- and possibly later in South and South East Asia -- will face a demographic upheaval as HIV/AIDS and associated diseases reduce human life expectancy by as much as 30 years and kill as many as a quarter of their populations over a decade or less, producing a huge orphan cohort. Nearly 42 million children in 27 countries will lose one or both parents to AIDS by 2010; 19 of the hardest hit countries will be in sub-Saharan Africa.

-- The relationship between disease and political instability is indirect but real.

The prevalence of HIV in the armed forces of many African countries is staggeringly high. The Economist has estimated the HIV prevalence in the Congo range at 50 to 80%. Other recent reports have projected that the South African military and police are also heavily impacted by HIV.

Moreover, as these troops participate in an increasing number of regional interventions and peacekeeping operations, the epidemic is likely to spread.

Extremely high levels of HIV infection among senior officers could lead to rapid turnover in those positions. In countries where the military plays a central or strong role in government, such rapid turnover could weaken the central government's authority. For those countries in political transition, this kind of instability could slow or even reverse the transition process. This is a dynamic that deserves serious attention not only in Africa, but also in the Newly Independent States of the Former Soviet Union, and in India where AIDS is intensifying its deadly grip.

The South African Institute for Security Studies has also linked the growing number of children orphaned by AIDS to future increases in crime and civil unrest. The assumption is that as the number of disaffected, troubled, and under-educated young people increases, many sub-Saharan African countries may face serious threats to their social stability.

Without appropriate intervention, many of the 2 million children projected to be orphaned by AIDS in South Africa alone will raise themselves on the streets, often turning to crime, drugs, commercial sex, and gangs to survive. This seriously affects stability and promotes the spread of HIV among these highly vulnerable young people.

Yet my message to you today is not one of hopelessness and desolation. On the contrary, I hope to share with you a sense of optimism. For amidst all of this tragedy, there is hope. Amidst this terrible crisis, there is opportunity: the opportunity for us -- working together -- to empower women, to protect children, and to support families and communities throughout the world in our shared struggle against AIDS.

We know what works. With our partners in Africa we have developed useful knowledge and effective tools. Together, we have designed model programs and proven that they work. And today, we know how to stem the rising tide of new infections, how to provide basic care to those who are sick, and how to mobilize communities to support the growing number of children orphaned by AIDS. Uganda has demonstrated that with strong political commitment and sustained nationwide programs, HIV prevalence can be cut in half. And Senegal has shown that HIV can be stopped in its tracks and prevalence can be kept low. But there is more, much more that needs to be done if we are to bring these successes to scale.

The United States has been engaged in the fight against AIDS here at home since the early 1980s. But increasingly we have come to realize that when it comes to AIDS -- both the crisis and the opportunity have no borders. We have much to learn from the experiences of other nations, countries, and the suffering of citizens in our global village touches and affects us all.

The United States has been the leader in the battle against AIDS. The Administration has taken an active role in sounding the alarm on the AIDS crisis in Africa, and in ensuring that the United States supports African efforts to combat this deadly disease.

Since 1986, this nation has contributed over $1 billion to the global fight against AIDS. More than 50% of those funds have been used to address the epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa. Overall, nearly half of all of the development assistance devoted to HIV care and prevention in the developing world has come from the US. The United States has also been the leading supporter of the United Nations Joint Program on AIDS -- UNAIDS -- contributing more than 25% of its budget.

It is a strong record of engagement and one of which we can be proud, but unfortunately it has not kept pace with this terrible pandemic. We have done much, but there remains much more that the United States and other developed nations can and must do.

During the past year and a half I have made four trips to eight African countries. Together with members and staff from both parties and chambers we went to witness firsthand both the tragedies and triumphs of AIDS in Africa. In response to the findings of these trips, the Administration requested and the Congress appropriated an additional $100 million in FY 2000 for a cross agency initiative to enhance our global AIDS efforts.

This new Initiative, which includes USAID and CDC, provides for a series of steps to increase US leadership through support for some of the extraordinary community-based programs and to provide much needed technical assistance to developing nations struggling to respond to the needs of their people infected and affected by AIDS. This effort more than doubles our funding for programs of prevention and care in Africa, and challenges our G8 and other partners to increase their efforts, as well.

This Initiative is a significant increase in the US government's investment in the global battle against AIDS and it begins to reflect the magnitude of this rapidly escalating pandemic. The Initiative focuses on four key areas:

-- Prevention. Specifically, we hope to implement a variety of prevention and stigma reduction strategies, especially for women and youth, including: HIV education, engagement of political, religious, and civic leaders, voluntary counseling and testing, interventions to reduce mother-to-child transmission, and enhanced training and technical assistance programs.

-- Home and community-based care. This will help create and enhance counseling and support systems, and help clinics and home health workers provide basic medical care (including treatment for related illnesses like STDs and TB).

-- Care of children orphaned by AIDS. We hope to improve our ability to assist families and communities in caring for their orphaned children through nutritional assistance, education, training, health, and counseling support, in coordination with micro-enterprise programs.

-- Infrastructure. These funds will help to increase the capacity for the effective delivery of essential services through governments, NGOs, and the private sector. We also need to enhance surveillance systems so that we can better track the epidemic and target HIV prevention efforts.

Some of the other key components of this Initiative include an increase in our efforts to include the AIDS epidemic in our foreign policy dialogue, both to encourage and support political leadership in hardest hit countries and to promote an increased response by our developed nation partners. We are also taking steps to increase our coordination with the private sector and the many non-governmental organizations working in Africa, including religious organizations.

You will find a more complete description of this Initiative -- both the problems and solutions -- in the report released by the Administration last summer. I have submitted a copy to this Subcommittee and would like to request that it be included in the record as part of my remarks.

While this new Initiative greatly strengthens the foundation of a comprehensive response to the pandemic, UNAIDS has estimated that it will take $1 billion to establish an effective HIV prevention program in sub-Saharan Africa. Currently all donors combined are contributing less than $350 million to that end. In addition, UNAIDS estimates that it will take a minimum of $1 billion to begin to deliver even the most basic care and treatment to people with AIDS in the region. We have not even begun to scratch the surface when it comes to delivering treatment.

In the face of such tremendous need, the Administration has asked the Congress to appropriate another $100 million to enhance and expand our efforts to combat AIDS in Africa and around the world. These funds will enable us to increase our programs at USAID and CDC and expand our comprehensive approach to include the Department of Labor and the Department of Defense.

Let me repeat, however, that the United States cannot and should not do this alone. Chairman Leach, you and the members of this Committee clearly recognize, as we do, that this crisis will require the active engagement of all segments of all societies working together. Every bilateral donor, every multilateral lending agency, the corporate community, the foundation community, the religious community and every African government must do its part to provide the leadership and resources necessary to turn this tide. It can and it must be done.

The bottom line is this: With no vaccine or cure available, we are at the beginning of an epidemic, not the end. What we see in Africa today, frankly, is just the tip of the iceberg. As goes Africa, so will go India and the Former Soviet Union. There must be a sense of urgency to work together with our partners in Africa to learn from the experiences there and to share the successes and avoid the failures in countries now standing on the threshold of the pandemic. Millions of lives ... perhaps hundreds of millions of lives hang in the balance.

We look forward to working closely with each and every one you and are so grateful that this issue is receiving the broad-based bipartisan support it deserves. AIDS is not a Democratic or Republican issue -- it is a devastating human tragedy that cries out to all of us for help.

We are one world -- and, in many ways, Africa's destiny is our destiny.

There is hope on the horizon -- but that hope will only be realized if we take constructive action together. Today, let us commit to seize this opportunity. And let me conclude by thanking this Subcommittee for its interest in this issue, and offer my continued assistance as you seek ways to respond to this terrible tragedy. As Archbishop Tutu said: "If we wage this holy war together -- we will win." Thank you.

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