Monthly Archives: May 2010
Less Money for AIDS Treatment
If you think about it, PEPFAR was never a great idea. An ambitious, idealistic, somewhat glorious idea. But not actually a good one. There was no way we could keep expanding it forever. Now, the Obama administration has made the difficult decision that we cannot keep increasing PEPFAR budgets to keep pace with new HIV infections. We can’t treat our way out of an AIDS crisis and we just spent ten years focusing on treatment and neglecting prevention.
Hillary Clinton Rolls Out New U.S. Policy to Support Nutrition in the Developing World
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton devotes her keynote address to the CARE conference in Washington, DC to the topic of nutrition. In the speech, she argues that nutrition is a cross cutting issue in which American dollars and attention can make the biggest difference. She outlines a new US approach to the issue around minute 12.
Israel, Estonia and Slovenia Join the OECD (UPDATE)
Israel, Slovenia and Estonia were invited to join the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a group of (now 34) wealthy democracies. The OECD does a host of things, from helping to stabilize its members’ economies to serving as a focal point for assisting in the economic development of poorer countries.
Plugging the Leak Update
Bad news: the cap didn’t work. The 40-foot-tall, 98-ton, iron cap that BP was hoping to use to clog the leak over the weekend has become clogged itself, by “deep-sea crystals…a slushy mix of gas and water, and been tossed aside.
As Yahoo notes, the cap took two weeks to build and 3 days to put into place. During that time 85,000 barrels of oil have spilled into the Gulf.
UN Human Rights Experts Criticize Arizona Law
A group of six UN rights experts are warning that Arizona’s controverisal new immigration law may be in violation of America’s international human rights obligations. From the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights:
UN Budget 101
Our friends at the Better World Campaign put together a helpful primer on how the United States pays the United Nations and its agencies. To accompany it, they organized a Q and A with the Better World Campaign’s executive director Peter Yeo who answers questions about the UN’s budget process.
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The SC; HRC; DPRK; South Sudan
The SC: The Security Council today held its last consultations under the Council Presidency of ROK. Tomorrow, Russia will take over the rotating Presidency of the Security Council for March under Ambassador Vitaly Churkin.
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The SG; Mali; Middle East; Palestine
The SG: At the Fifth Global Forum of the UN Alliance of Civilizations in Vienna, Austria today, the SG emphasized the role of youth in ensuring a “prosperous, equitable and peaceful future.”
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The SG; DRC; HRC; Palestinian Prisoner
The SG: In Ethiopia over the weekend, the SG is now in the United Arab Emirates. Today he met with Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashed Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, where the two discussed developments in the region, including Syria, Iran, Lebanon, Egypt and Jordan, and in the Middle East Peace Process.
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