Africa is struggling under a triple threat crisis that keeps its people poor and its nations weak - the burden of unpayable DEBT that drains financial resources necessary for health care and education; the epidemic of AIDS that is taking lives of an entire generation; and the unfair TRADE policies that keep Africans from being able to sell their products at world prices and earn their own way out of poverty. Seventy percent of the people in Sub-Saharan Africa live on less than $2 a day. 200 million men, women, and children go hungry every day. This year at least a million Africans, most of them young children, will die of malaria and two million will die of AIDS.
Prior to 2001, this global crisis had little political organization, focus, or leadership. Within the United States, AIDS was perceived as a fringe issue.
In 2002, President Bush announced the Millennium Challenge Account, a 3-year 3 billion dollar program, to encourage African countries to embrace market reform and clean up their governance through an incentive-based system. In 2003, Congress passed the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). This plan committed $15 billion to AIDS relief over a 5 year period. Funding has been provided to treat 850,000 people with AIDS, care for 1.2 million orphans, and counsel and test almost 14 million people.
The Sheridan Group implemented the following steps to address this challenge:
- Consulted on the establishment of the DATA Foundation to conduct advocacy and fully leverage the celebrity status of Bono, the lead star of the Irish rock group U2, to make substantial progress in addressing issues of poverty and AIDS in Africa
- Provided strategic legislative counsel, outreach, and coordination to build constituent support for DATA's mission, including development of the ONE Campaign to end poverty
- Prepared and executed a strategy that targeted the passage of major authorizing legislation to double funding for US global health programs, while improving trade conditions and relieving debt for the most deserving countries
- Advocated for funding DATA's priorities through regular and supplemental appropriations bills, including increased contributions to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS and expanded US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Center for Disease Control (CDC) global health activities
