Annan Names Former Ugandan Health Minister to Head AIDS Fund Transition Team
Yesterday, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan named former Ugandan Health Minister Crispus Kiyonga as head of the transition team for the U.N.-brokered Global AIDS and Health Fund, the Wall Street Journal reports. Kiyonga, who until last week oversaw what many observers consider to be "one of Africa's most effective AIDS-prevention campaigns," will head a group charged with determining how the fund -- which also aims to fight malaria and tuberculosis -- will operate. No start date for the transition team has been announced, but so far $1.4 billion has been pledged to the fund for 2002. Health experts estimate that the fund needs between $7 million and $10 million annually to be effective (Wall Street Journal, 7/31).
Annan Addresses Urban League
Annan also addressed the African HIV/AIDS crisis yesterday when speaking before members of the National Urban League, which works to "empowe[r] African Americans to enter the economic and social mainstream." He said that next month's U.N.-sponsored World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance in Durban, South Africa, would be "essential" for battling the "widespread" racial and ethnic prejudices that fuel Africa's civil conflicts and the HIV/AIDS epidemic (Becker, New York Times, 7/31).