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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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