[e-farmacos] Retirada de financiamiento para conferencia del Global Health Council

["McCullough, Leela" <leela@healthnet.org>]

[Leela McCullough de SATELLIFE (Thanks, Leela!) ha solicitado que incluyamos en la lista de discusion este mensaje en el que se anuncia la retirada de fondos para realizar la conferencia anual del Global Health Council por parte del gobierno Bush entre otros motivos, por el contenido potencial de la conferencia: ?Youth & Health, Generation on the Edge?..., AF]

BUSH YANKS FUNDING FROM NONPROFIT
Wilder's Global Health Council Loses $360,000
By John P. Gregg
Valley News Staff Writer

The Bush administration yesterday said it is withdrawing more than $360,000 in funding for the Global Health Council's annual conference in Washington, claiming the June forum would have mixed federal money with lobbying activity.

But the last-minute decision also comes after conservatives complained that the ?Youth & Health, Generation on the Edge? conference is slanted toward abortion rights and other reproductive health issues and also linked to MoveOn.org, which is seeking to oust President Bush from the White House.

Nils Daulaire, the president and chief executive officer of the Wilder-based council, said federal money was not going to be used improperly during a planned ?advocacy day,? but was careful not to criticize the White House.

?It's a very tricky and delicate situation. All I can say is that we have been through a very careful review of our activities,? Daulaire said. ?We do not use federal funds for any restricted activities.?

Daulaire also said MoveOn.org would not be a sponsor or participant in the final program.

?It's a technical and education conference, not a political advocacy conference,? Daulaire said.

The $1 million, four-day conference includes sessions that range from MTV's global HIV/AIDS campaign to substance abuse to ?strategies to prevent unsafe abortion and its consequences.? The Global Health Council was to receive $170,000 from the Centers for Disease Control and the federal Health Resources and Services Administration. The nonprofit group also planned to direct about $190,000 from a five-year, $5 million grant it receives from the U.S. Agency for International Development toward the conference.

But both the Department of Health and Human Services and USAID said they were withdrawing the federal money for the conference because of concerns over the planned ?advocacy day,? which could send many of the 2,000 anticipated conference participants to Capitol Hill, a relatively common feature in Washington-based conventions.

?In working with them to devise a budget, they were unable to delineate for us, breaking it out, how our money was going to be spent and not commingled with lobbying activity,? said Bill Pierce, an HHS spokesman.

And Jeff Grieco, a USAID spokesman, said the conference was moving from technical information to ?now being a platform for expressing highly partisan political views.? Grieco noted that a reference to MoveOn.org had appeared on an earlier program.

Although speakers include Doortje Braeken, a senior advisor for International Planned Parenthood, which supports abortion rights, and Thorya Ahmed Obaid, the executive director of the United Nation's Population Fund, Daulaire said proponents of abstinence and a member of the President's Advisory Committee on HIV/AIDS are also participating in the conference.

?There is great balance,? said Daulaire. 

?We've carried on this conference for 31 years. It really is the central meeting place for global health practitioners. It has never been politicized and never will be. ? There are many things that the professional community has divergent views on, and we believe the best way to deal with this is to have a free and open exchange.?

U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., a longtime ally of Daulaire's, is slated to present the 2004 Jonathan Mann Award for Health and Human Rights, named for a prominent AIDS global health pioneer, at the conference. Leahy aides said the Bush administration appeared to be catering to social conservatives.

?This was a manufactured issue, handled opportunistically by the White House to satisfy some in their political base,? said Leahy spokesman David Carle.

The Washington Times, a conservative paper, last Friday editorialized against the federal funding for the conference after 12 Republican members of Congress wrote a letter questioning the program, especially the advocacy day.

But Tim Rieser, Leahy's top aide on the Senate Appropriations foreign operations subcommittee, said the conference was world-renowned.

?It is probably the biggest and most respected gathering of public health professionals in the world,? said Rieser, a former Norwich resident. 

?This conference is remarkable for its diversity, for the caliber of people who attend, and for the quality of discourse. All points of view are expressed.?

Rieser said the conference also raises such topics as AIDS, family planning, the use of condoms, and other reproductive health issues.

?These are not easy issues to talk about, but they are absolutely critical to effective public health. To the Global Health Council's credit, they confront these issues. They talk about them,? he said.

Daulaire said ?of course I'm disappointed? to have lost the federal funding, but said the conference ?will go on.? 

He said he hoped to embark on some ?quick fund raising? to muster about $100,000 to pay for airfare and other expenses for about 50 public health professionals from lesser-developed countries who were going to present papers at the conference.

Daulaire, who had written an opinion piece in January questioning the depth of Bush's commitment to fighting AIDS around the world, also was headed to Capitol Hill yesterday afternoon to give a bipartisan briefing on malaria in Africa.

?We're not going to get pigeonholed by this issue,? Daulaire said of the conference contretemps. 

?We want to make sure we can continue to work on our agenda.?

Last fall the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation gave the Global Health Council a five-year, $10 million grant to build American support for public health programs around the world. 

At the conference, Bill Gates Sr., the father of the Microsoft founder, is to present the annual Gates Award for Global Health, which includes a $1 million prize.


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Leela McCullough, Ed.D.
Director of Information Services

SATELLIFE
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