229,524, according to the AIDS & Rights Alliance for Southern Africa in a PR video calling out the African Union and African leaders for not spending enough on health.
One year of corruption in Africa = 704 million years of HIV treatment
See the rest in this video set to Akon's - "I'm So Paid":
And for more fun, add all those numbers up at the end for a grand total of lives that could’ve been saved. Then visit the AIDS and Rights Alliance of Southern Africa (ARASA), a network of local NGOs who describe themselves as pursuing a human rights approach to HIV and TB treatment.
“Africa South of the Sahara still faces a grim scenario with respect to the health of its people. The region –which is home to 12 percent of the world’s population –accounts for 22 percent of the total global disease burden and more than 68 percent of the people living with HIV/AIDS. The region’s poor health status is mirrored by crises in health financing and human resources for health.
With only 2 percent of the global health workforce and only 1 percent of the world’s health expenditures Sub-Saharan African countries are ill-equipped to adequately address their health problems.”
- AU Paper (CAMH/EXP/13a(IV))presented to AU Ministers of Health Conference in Ethiopia, May 2009
Show Us the Money for Health: An Open Appeal to African Heads of State
Sign the petition Calling on African Heads of State to Allocate More Money to Health!
We need not rehash the masses of data that demonstrate in no uncertain terms that health in Sub-Saharan Africa is in absolute crisis – child health, maternal health, HIV, TB, malaria… the list of our health woes is miserably endless.
We do not need to point out, once again, the skewed priorities that govern how money in this region is spent or mis-spent: by now these are obvious, painful and embarrassing.
This correspondence is not about technicalities. It is, fundamentally, a moral challenge.
A status quo has been established in much of the African region whereby money – a lot of which comes from the labour of civilians whose votes and/or fear keep you in power – is used without transparency, and without humanity.
Decisions on health are among the most critical decisions that our leaders can make, and are invariably some of the most disappointing.
Our money bleeds into places we cannot see, while our health care workers sacrifice their right to decent wages and working conditions and our people sacrifice their right to health and life. In the meantime, we knock on the door of the international community to cushion the altar – and certainly, the international community has a responsibility to fulfil their commitments to health funding – but, so do we.
What happened to the Abuja Declaration of 2001? Do you remember stating that “We are fully convinced that containing and reversing the HIV/AIDS epidemic, tuberculosis and other infectious diseases should constitute our top priority for the first quarter of the 21st Century”?
With close to 2 million people dying of HIV and TB in Africa every year, and governments across the region putting the brakes on scaling up access to prevention, treatment and care – are you still convinced?
What about the commitment to allocating at least 15% of national budgets to health?
You may have forgotten, but we have not and cannot. Your broken promises translate into broken lives.
Worse still, the economic recession threatens to push health even further down the agenda. The tragic irony is that, as history has shown and much expert analysis has reiterated, this will cost us far more down the line. There is no bright future in ill health.
We acknowledge that our dismay does not apply evenly across the board. Some countries are doing better than others, because political commitment to health is real and present. We urge these leaders to stand up and challenge their peers.
We call on African governments to scrutinize their country-level prioritization of health and to develop clear roadmaps for meeting the Abuja 15% target for expenditure on this basic human right.
We are watching, and organizing, and will hold our governments accountable for the promises that they have made.
Please sign the Petition. ADDRESS AND CONTACT DETAILS WILL NOT BE SHARED.
Related - Africa: Backsliding On Aids Funding
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