Last week the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted to boost spending over the next five years for the President’s Emergency Plan For Aids Relief (PEPFAR). Where the original plan devoted an unprecedented $3 billion dollars per year to fight AIDS, this plan loads the fund to an astonishing $10 billion dollars per year. Yet many are actually upset with the financing of this bill, citing their disappointment with the continued allocation of funds for abstinence education as part of this component. While I agree that the rigid allocation of these funds towards abstinence is highly questionable given it’s inefficiencies, opponents of the bill for this specific pretense need a little dose of context. Could anyone have possibly imagined during the Clinton Administration or earlier the allocation of $10 billion a year to fight HIV/AIDS/Malaria/TB across the world? This is an astounding figure that should be praised more often. And how did we do it? We brought an overwhelming consensus from all over the political spectrum to fight a global crisis. So yeah, there were concessions made to the conservative leadership, but overall, the program will clearly do far more good than harm.

Through sheer scale, PEPFARis moving from a reactionary, emergency relief fund to a long-term institution that will be involved in long term strategic planning, infrastructure building, and measured and sustained responses. Furthermore abstinence education is only a small part of the funds allocated, in which this educational process can also serve other goals such as community building. With PEPFAR covering so much ground, other organizations can in turn scale up their own sex education/contraception dispersion projects to go along with PEPFAR’s efforts. Huge numbers of individuals living with AIDS are now being treated, giving them a quality of life filled with aspiration that was never before possible. So when organizations like CHANGE express their hesitancy to support such a bill, can they possibly be serious? Of course they should be arguing for the best use of funds to treat the global AIDS pandemic, but it’s ridiculous to see PEPFAR as part of the problem instead of the solution.

If you have time for a comprehensive read, the book “PEPFAR Implementation: Progress and Promise” is available online for free.

P.S. As part of the bill John Kerry removes a longstanding and discriminatory provision restricting the travel of individuals with HIV to the United States. Good for him.