Bill Clinton, Bill Gates unite in foreign aid plea (AFP)

WASHINGTON (AFP) –

Former president Bill Clinton and Microsoft founder Bill Gates called Wednesday on US lawmakers to boost foreign aid to fight diseases like HIV/AIDS and malaria in the world's poorest nations.

The leading philanthropists went to Capitol Hill to boost support for the so-called Global Health Initiative (GHI) and promote a crucial health aid budget bill proposed in 2009 by President Barack Obama's administration.

"I hope you will pass this bill," Clinton said in testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "It is a very good bill, I think, and I think it is the next logical step" in US efforts to boost global health care.

But both Clinton and Gates, who work on global health issues through the William J. Clinton Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation respectively, also acknowledged the US economic situation.

The proposed US contribution to the GHI "reflects the budget constraints under which Congress labors," Clinton said.

The GHI was launched by the Davos Forum in 2002 to improve health worldwide and better tackle HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and malnutrition.

The United States, which is the biggest global contributor to health-related causes, would pay out 63 billion dollars over six years towards the initiative, if lawmakers agree.

Clinton said the proposed US contribution was carefully developed for maximum impact, and followed logically from existing US contributions to the PEPFAR program -- the President's Emergency Program for AIDS relief.

"I think the bill is well conceived. It focuses on developing systems in the 28 global health initiative plus countries," the former president said.

"The thing I love best about the Global Health Initiative proposal that the administration has made is that it is designed to work us all out of jobs. It is designed to break the cycle of AIDS. It is designed the increase the capacity of local government."

Gates, who Clinton praised for the work his foundation has done to lower the price of anti-malarials, emphasized the amount requested was a small fraction of the US budget.

"Our (global) health budget would be one percent of our military budget," he said. "I would argue for an even higher percentage, because this is America at its best. Really helping people, and putting them on a road to self-sufficiency."

Taken from here