EuropaWorld 18/5/2001 Annan Gets Some Good News

After the sad and troublesome fracas of the Human Rights Commission vote, it was nice for Kofi Annan to have some good news to report on the United Nations' relationship with the United States. Readers will recall that last week the United States was reacting furiously to the news that it had lost its seat on the 53 member UN Human Rights Commission. Proposals emanating from Congress suggested that the United States would now withhold agreed payments to the UN pending reinstatement of the USA in the next round of elections in twelve months time. Annan felt that this was not only unfair (the funds were destined to compensate poor countries for past UN peacekeeping expenditures) but would send entirely the wrong signals to the wider world.

He must also have been worried as to whether the unexpected result of the democratic vote in the Economic and Social Council would impair relations with the US administration with whom he is negotiating a major contribution to his so-called 'war-chest' to fight HIV/AIDS. But in the end he needn't have worried. After an urgent and unscheduled meeting with Secretary of State, Colin Powell, in Washington on Wednesday and a meeting with President Bush and other members of the Administration on Friday, Annan came away with both a $200 million contribution to his AIDS fund and a clear statement from President Bush about funding United Nations dues.

His relief showed when he came to acknowledge the US contribution. "Everyone likes flattery; and when you come to Royalty you should lay it on with a trowel," said former UK Prime Minister, Benjamin Disraeli. An American President is not Royalty but President Bush is the next best thing and as he prepared to thank the President before the world's press, the UN Secretary-General loaded the trowel: "I wish to thank you, President Bush, for committing yourself today to placing the United States at the forefront of the global fight against HIV/AIDS. It is a visionary decision that reflects your nation's natural leadership role in the United Nations, as well as your recognition of the threat posed by this global catastrophe," he said, hopefully with a straight face.

Annan has taken a special interest in the AIDS issue which he sees as a major obstacle to achieving the international development targets set at last year's Millennium Summit - in particular the pledge to halve poverty by 2015. Coming as he does from Africa it is also natural that he should be concerned about the widening gap between Africa's prospects and those of other continents. Annan knows that AIDS is decimating the workforce in many countries in southern Africa, taking out doctors and teachers as well as agricultural and service workers. A recent report from the UN's own Food and Agriculture Organisation has suggested that ten African countries may lose 25 per cent of their workforce by 2020 - there are already 12 millions AIDS orphans in the sub-Saharan region - creating an enormous burden of dependent relatives for the already impoverished care systems in those countries.

The continuing burgeoning growth of AIDS has to be checked, halted and reversed if African development is to have a hope of catching up with the progress seen in many parts of Asia. Meanwhile the growth in AIDS cases elsewhere in the world has to be set on a downward trend long before the pandemic reaches the disastrous proportions seen in sub-Saharan Africa where, in countries like Zimbabwe, as many as one in four of the population are HIV positive.

AIDS is not yet the biggest killer in Africa, diseases like malaria and tuberculosis, hold that dubious title. It is exponential growth that gives AIDS its time-bomb like quality and that is why Kofi Annan is giving it a unique focus.

It was at a recent international Summit on the disease held in the Nigerian capital the Secretary-General called for his 'war-chest' - a new fund of sufficient size to command the research and treatment resources efforts to halt AIDS in its tracks. Nobody knows how much this will cost - the figure that Annan put on it was $7-10 billion dollars a year. This, of course, is in absolute terms a stupefying amount of money but it works out at only some $235 per AIDS sufferer per year. The cost of AIDS treatment with retroviral drugs in a western country can be around $12,000 dollars, which puts Kofi Annan's 'war chest' into some sort of perspective.

Another perspective can be gained by relating the figure to what the world spends on defence and arms - some $750 billion or about $2 billion per day, or against the $1,500 billion that flows speculatively across the world's currency markets each day. The Secretary-General's fund could be generated from a tax take on such transactions as low as three-thousanths of a single per cent. If such a scheme were in operation it would mean that for every $33,000 a company or individual staked, it would only receive the benefit of $32,999. The missing dollar would go to fight AIDS.

The international community is however reeling under a plethora of UN appeals and hardly a week goes by without evidence of major underfunding in the face of major humanitarian catastrophe. Last week for instance the UN had to declare that its quarter billion dollar Afghanistan appeal had been little more than one third funded. This shortfall is almost certain to result in greater displacement as starving villagers leave their homes for the refugee camps. Providing food in the villages is a far cheaper and more effective solution.

So it is by no means certain that Annan's fund will fare any better. Had the US been prepared to make a $2 billion contribution then that might have been taken by other donors countries as a signal for action. However, Annan must be grateful to have something in the bag in advance of the forthcoming UN General Assembly Special Session on AIDS, to be attended by twenty heads of government, and also the meeting of the G-8 in sunny Genoa later this summer. Good news comes in small packets these days.