AEGiS-WSJ: U.N.'s Annan Calls On Corporate America To Step Up Efforts to Fight AIDS Globally

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2001. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

U.N.'s Annan Calls On Corporate America To Step Up Efforts to Fight AIDS Globally

Wall Street Journal - June 4, 2001
Rachel Zimmerman

WASHINGTON -- United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan called on corporate America to step up its efforts in battling the global AIDS epidemic or else risk economic ruin.

Addressing the U.S. Chamber of Commerce here, Mr. Annan characterized HIV/AIDS as a "global problem of catastrophic proportions" that devastates economies by killing people in the prime of their lives, while undermining regional and global security. "The spread of the pandemic has caused business costs to expand and markets to shrink," he said, adding that as AIDS "creates more poverty and deepens inequalities, it fuels the growing public backlash against globalization."

Mr. Annan said that to arrest the scourge that has already killed 22 million people world-wide, business leaders should develop new, comprehensive AIDS policies to educate and care for their workers in Africa, the region hardest hit by AIDS, and around the world. Now that the price of some AIDS drugs has dropped, he said, companies should subsidize the cost of these medicines. "It is now more profitable for companies to treat their HIV-positive employees than to recruit and retrain new ones as untreated workers die," he said. Mr. Annan also made a pitch for corporate contributions to a newly created Global AIDS Fund, a "war chest," of $7 billion to $10 billion that the secretary-general recently launched for poor nations to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

Mr. Annan wouldn't say how much he expects in contributions to the fund from the private sector. But already, several companies and philanthropic organizations have expressed concern about making large donations to such a massive fund run by bureaucrats, particularly when details of its structure and governance remain murky. Mr. Annan said when it is finalized, the structure of the fund "will ease their anxiety," because it will be "light and flexible," with a small board and an advisory panel of scientists to "make sure we're working for the right results."

So far, the U.S. government has pledged an initial $200 million to the fund. The U.N. said Friday that it received a commitment of about $127 million from France. Meanwhile, the British are expected to contribute about $100 million to the fund, as reported in the Guardian.

Write to Rachel Zimmerman at rachel.zimmerman@wsj.com
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