United States International development assistance budget for fiscal
year 2006
Congress has begun to debate President Bush's proposed budget for fiscal year 2006. Unlike his requests in past years, this year's foreign assistance budget includes a line item that would provide up to $25 million for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). This budget request for fiscal year 2006, however, comes at the expense of funding for the United States Agency for International Development's (USAID), Child Survival and Health Account which is slated to receive more than $100 million less in 2006.

Both UNFPA and USAID need the unwavering financial support of the U.S. UNFPA, known throughout the world for their extraordinary work to aid women and their families suffering through the effects of natural disasters - such as their current work to aid 150,000 pregnant tsunami victims - and in war-torn regions like Iraq and Afghanistan, has not received funding of any kind from the U.S. government for three years. And with conflict continuing in Iraq and Afghanistan, the genocide in Darfur and children in regions of the world suffering unimaginable tragedies as a result of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, USAID needs more financial support, not less.

President Bush's empty promises
The president's favorite initiatives - the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) and the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) - will be funded at levels much less than originally proposed by the administration Instead of receiving the $5 billion pledged by the president, MCA will receive $3 billion. And while the $3.2 billion requested for PEPFAR is a $300 million increase over 2005 funding levels, it is still more than $1 billion short of what was originally anticipated.

U.S. international family planning and reproductive health programs saw more of the same in the 2006 budget. The amount requested -- $425 million - is the same amount requested in the 2005 budget and in the president's three previous budget requests. Moreover, the 2006 request is more than $100 million less than the $542 million appropriated by Congress ten years ago. To review the U.S. foreign assistance budget in detail, visit the State Department's website:http://www.state.gov/documents/...

New study charts trends in International assistance for reproductive health and population
According to Population Action International's (PAI) new study, Progress and Promises: Trends in International Assistance for Reproductive Health and Population, the United States leads 21 donor countries in overall funding for international reproductive health and population efforts, including HIV/AIDS. However, U.S. support falls to the middle of the pack when the size of the country's economy's (gross national income) is considered.

President Bush's budget proposal for 2006 falls far short of the funding commitment made by the U.S. at the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in 1994, which was reaffirmed last year at a series of regional UN meetings. In 1994, the U.S., along with the other donor countries, agreed to provide two-thirds of the funding needed to achieve the goal of universal access to reproductive health care by 2015.

The U.S. share of ICPD funding commitments for family planning and reproductive health programs (adjusted for inflation and the increase in the number of women of reproductive age since 1995), minus any funding for HIV/AIDS prevention activities, is about $3.2 billion.

Review the study and supporting materials, including the report card, on
PAI's website: http://www.populationaction.org/resources/publications/...

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