Washington, DC — The fight to overcome HIV/Aids in Africa must be "front and center," says former Congressman J.C. Watts, an Oklahoma Republican who is co-chairing a new organization established to campaign for Congressional funding of President George Bush's proposed US$15bn for the effort.
The new group, called the Coalition for AIDS Relief in Africa (CARA), has been spearheaded by the Corporate Council on Africa to organize the efforts of the corporate community, non-profit organizations and representatives of African governments in the United States. "It is something we were talking about doing before all this Middle East stuff happened," Watts told AllAfrica on Friday.
"It's too important to just leave out there and think it was going to get done," said Watts. "Some 13-year-old kid dying of Aids or going to bed hungry, knows no difference between democracy or dictatorship."
In his State of the Union address in January, Bush called for spending US$15bn over the next five year to combat the spread of HIV/Aids in Africa and the Caribbean. He said his proposal included US$10 billion in new funding, along with US$5bn scattered in a variety of current programs.
However, the White House budget requests for the current fiscal year, as well as the budget proposals for fiscal year 2004, fall far short of the US$2bn a year the president's proposal suggests is needed. Both old and new HIV/Aids money totals just US$1.9bn for 2003, less than US$500m of which is new.
Getting all of the US$15bn is CARA's major mission, says Watts. "Let's put an organization behind this and get it done."
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Watts shares the CARA chairmanship with former North Carolina Congresswoman Eva Clayton. Swaziland's ambassador to the United States, Mary Kanya, is vice chair for African ambassadors, and Africare President Julius Coles is vice-chair for non-government organizations (NGOs). The corporate council president, Stephen Hayes, will serve as president of CARA.
"We have a social, moral, and economic obligation to seek immediate, emergency relief on the continent," said Clayton. "It is now up to us to educate members of Congress and the American people regarding what is happening and what must be done to stop it."
The group, which plans to "identify and hire" lobbyists, is still "staffing up," according to Neel Lattimore, the spokesperson. "We will be lean but plan to use the best and most talented people we can get our hands on," Lattimore said.
Many of the NGOs and faith-based groups involved are tax-exempt, non-profit organizations, which are barred from political activity. CARA has been incorporated as a 501(c)(4) non-profit, which allows the group to lobby.
"We have entered this battle because we believe the pledge made by the President of the United States of America to the peoples and nations of Africa is a noble and just cause, and one that affects all those involved in Africa," Hayes told CCA members. "We believe that this pledge needs to be honored by Congress."
The membership of the council, which was created in 1992, accounts for nearly 85 percent of U.S. private sector investment in Africa.
Press Release: Coalition to Lobby for President's AIDS Relief Plan for Africa
