United Nations Calls for Donors To Release $1B for Haiti To Address Social Problems, Including HIV/AIDS

The United Nations on Wednesday urged donors to release $1 billion in funds for Haiti to address its social problems, including HIV/AIDS, following the release of a joint report by the United Nations and the Haitian government, Reuters AlertNet reports. The report found that 6.31% of the Haitian adult population was HIV-positive in 2002 and an estimated 10.5% of Haitians will be living with HIV/AIDS by 2015. "The alarm bells go off with this report," Haiti's Interim Prime Minister Gerard Latortue said, adding, "[I]t becomes all the more evident that Haiti cannot make it on its own and that we must ask for an immediate disbursement of the more than $1 billion promised last July in Washington" (Delva, Reuters AlertNet, 11/17). International donors in July pledged $1.08 billion in aid for reconstruction in Haiti, including funding for HIV/AIDS initiatives. The United States has pledged approximately $230 million over a two-year period for the country, which is struggling for political stability and basic services. Secretary of State Colin Powell said that the contribution from the Bush administration would increase threefold the amount of U.S. aid originally intended for fiscal year 2004. He added that $19 million of the funding would be used primarily to fight HIV/AIDS (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 7/21). However, "little of that money has been released" so far, according to Reuters AlertNet (Reuters AlertNet, 11/17).