Product RED is planning to launch a digital music service.  For monthly fee of $5, each month users will get 2 songs (mp3 format), one from a well-known musician and the other from an up-and-coming artist, and one surprise item.  According to reports, this would all be "exclusive content."  Half the money earned will go to the Global Fund; half will go to the musicians and their record companies.

According to this article from the Kaiser Network, "U2, Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello, Elton John, Emmylou Harris and Death Cab for Cutie" are among the artists already signed up to participate.

Product RED (co-founded by Bono, a famous musician himself) is an initiative that teams up with popular brands and products like Gap and iPod to donate money to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.  When consumers buy designated RED products, the company donates a percentage of the purchase price to the Global Fund.

According to the Kaiser Network article:

Some critics of RED have said it does not direct enough of the profits from its products to HIV/AIDS relief in comparison to the amount of money companies spend promoting their RED products. The organization's approach is to find businesses that can finance HIV/AIDS treatment in a sustainable way, and a subscription music service that generates steady revenue would fit that approach, according to the Times (Levine, New York Times, 6/30).

To find out more about Product RED, check out its website and blog.

******* version française dessous *************

It has been just over three-weeks since we converged for the 2nd General Meeting of the Africa Campaign on Disability and HIV & AIDS was held March 11 – 13, in beautiful Kampala, Uganda.

We would like to once again take this opportunity to express our gratitude to the National Union for Disabled People in Uganda (NUDIPU) and the Government of Uganda, through the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development for gracefully hosting our gathering. Our gratitude is also extended to The Secretariat of the African Decade, Handicap International and once again NUDIPU for supporting the event and last but not least to each and every member of the National Organizing Committee for their exceptional contribution prior to and during the meeting. It would not have been possible without your sterling efforts, long and hard hours and sleepless nights!!!

We were more that 170 delegates representing more that 20 African countries and 10 countries outside of Africa. We came from a wide variety of backgrounds, including civil society, government, academic and research institutions, international NGOs, funding agencies, international stakeholders in HIV/AIDS work and the media.

In addition to networking and rich exchange among groups and countries, the constitution of five working groups with plans of action to further Campaign objectives, a renewed steering committee, we also gave birth together to the Kampala Declaration on Disability and HIV&AIDS. (full text is enclosed in English. Portuguese and French will be forwarded ASAP)

The declaration calls on governments, HIV/AIDS service providers, the African Union, UN agencies, funding agencies, research and academic institutions and disabled people's organizations to action toward

• Equal access to HIV/AIDS prevention and services and
• Full participation by persons with disabilities in the response to HIV/AIDS in every country and at every level.

We hereby encourage you to disseminate this declaration widely within your country, to persons with disabilities, governments, HIV/AIDS service providers, UN agencies, funding agencies, researchers and academic institutions. Please also use opportunities you have with media to highlight this important message. Feel free to add it onto your organisation's website.

We would like to take this opportunity also to introduce our steering committee and at the same time extend our warmest welcome to the newer members of the committee. They are:

• Mr. Tambo Camara (Pan African Federation of the Disabled (PAFOD) - Mauritania;
• Ms. Farida Gulamo (Association of Disabled Mozambicans (ADEMO) - Mozambique;
• Mr Martin Babu Mwesigwa (National Union of Disabled Persons of Uganda (NUDIPU) - Uganda;
• Dr. Elly Macha (African Union of the Blind (AFUB) - Kenya;
• Mrs. Rachel Kachaje (Southern African Federation of the Disabled (SAFOD) - Malawi
• Mr. Obuya George Onyango (African Deaf Union (ADU) - Kenya;
• Mr. Paul Tezanou (Chair of the Secretariat of the African Decade) - Cameroon;
• Hon. Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu (Member of SA parliament, Disability respresentative of SA National AIDS council executive structure) - South Africa;
• Ms. Fri Beatrice Bime (Global Fund) – Geneva NEW
• Mr. Oumar Diop (Handicap FormEduC, Resource Centre for the promotion of the rights of persons with disabilities) – Senegal NEW
• Mr. David O. Anyaele (Centre for citizens with disabilities) – Nigeria NEW

We would also like to bring your attention to changes in the campaign management. At the end our gathering we said goodbye to Dr. Susan Girois. She will no longer be actively involved in the work on the Campaign Management Team (CMT), although her expertise, experience, guidance and spontaneity will be sought more often than she expects. Her active participation will surely be missed however knowing she's on call sets the rest of us at ease. In the same breath we would like to welcome two new additions to the CMT: Kevin Henderson who is the HIV&AIDS technical advisor at Handicap International's Kenya program and Aïda Sarr, a programme manager for the Secretariat of the African Decade of Persons with Disabilities' West, North and Central Africa regional programme.

We would like to encourage you to please keep us updated on the developments in your respective countries, regions and districts and we promise to share your experiences with the rest of the world.

Gouwah Samuels, Kevin Henderson, Aïda Sarr
Campaign Management Team

Kampala Declaration on Disability and HIV & AIDS

PREAMBLE:

We, the participants of the Second Meeting of the Africa Campaign on Disability and HIV&AIDS representing Disabled People's Organizations (DPOs), Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) working with and for persons with disabilities, Funding and Development Agencies from 21 African countries and representatives from other parts of the world, a meeting hosted by the National Union of Disabled Persons of Uganda (NUDIPU) in conjunction with the Government of Uganda, with support from Handicap International and the African Decade Secretariat, in Kampala, Uganda, March 11-13, 2008;

NOTING the fact that the incidence of HIV is disproportionately high among groups that are excluded socially, culturally and economically, including persons with disabilities, and that these groups are disregarded in a majority of national and international HIV/AIDS programming initiatives in Africa. Further noting the importance of mainstreaming disability issues in relevant strategies to achieve sustainable development;

RECOGNIZING that national, regional, continental and international instruments on human rights, such as the United Nations Human Rights Bill and the International Covenants on Human Rights, have proclaimed and agreed that everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in these instruments, without distinction of any kind. Further recognizing the principles and objectives of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities 2006, the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS – adopted at the UN General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS in 2001 and the Millennium Development Goals (MDG);

CONSIDERING that despite these various instruments and undertakings to which many United Nations member states are signatories, persons with disabilities continue to face barriers in their participation as equal members of society and violations of their human rights in all parts of the world, including Africa. Persons with disabilities should have the opportunity to be actively involved in decision-making processes about policies and programmes, including those directly concerning them; and the importance of accessibility to the physical, social, economic and cultural environment, to health and education and to information and communication in enabling persons with disabilities to fully enjoy all human rights and fundamental freedoms. Further considering the fact that children and women with disabilities are often at greater risk, both within and outside the home, of violence, injury or abuse, neglect, maltreatment or exploitation;

We call on all African Governments to include disability in its diversity as a crosscutting issue in ALL poverty reduction strategies.

Mindful of the above preamble, the signatories to the Kampala Declaration on Disability and HIV & AIDS make the following call that:

African Governments shall ensure that:

National AIDS strategic plans recognize persons with disabilities as vulnerable to the impact of HIV and AIDS as well as valuable contributors in the response to HIV/AIDS.

National HIV/AIDS monitoring and evaluation systems and the existing population surveillance systems include disability specific and disaggregated indicators to be used for planning and programming purposes;

The National HIV/AIDS Commissions/Councils include active representation of persons with disabilities;

Information Education Communication (IEC) strategies at all levels ensure provision for IEC which is accessible to persons with intellectual, mental, physical and sensory disabilities;

HIV/AIDS is recognized as a cause of disability.

HIV/AIDS prevention specialists and service providers shall:

Develop targeted prevention messages and methods that are disability-specific, gender-specific, age-specific and adapted to local language and cultural variations;

Equip all HIV/AIDS care and support service centres to provide comprehensive information and confidential counselling to persons with intellectual, mental, physical and sensory disabilities;

Provide equal opportunity to persons with disabilities to train for and engage in counselling and care provision (i.e. Voluntary Counselling and Testing (VCT), Preventing Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) and adherence counsellors, and home based care providers;

Associations of people living with HIV and AIDS recognise the rights of persons with disabilities living with HIV and AIDS to 'access for all' and provide greater involvement of persons with disabilities in the issues that affect them.

African Union AIDS portfolio and Africa AIDS Watch shall:

Ensure that their strategies, programmes and monitoring systems include disability in its diversity as a cross-cutting issue.

UNAIDS and its composite UN agencies—UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, UNDP, UNFPA, UNODC, ILO, UNESCO, WHO and the World Bank—shall:

Recognise disability in its diversity as a cross-cutting issue in all HIV/AIDS policies, guidelines and programmes;

Ensure that their monitoring mechanisms track the involvement of persons with disabilities as planners, implementers as well as beneficiaries of HIV/AIDS programmes.

Funding Agencies shall:

Ensure that their funding requirements include both disability and HIV/AIDS as cross cutting issues;

Provide all key documents related to funding opportunities in formats that are accessible to persons with different types of disabilities;

Ensure that their monitoring mechanisms track the involvement of persons with disabilities in planning and implementation as well as beneficiaries of recipient programmes;

Independent research agencies and academic institutions shall:

Include disability and HIV/AIDS as a priority area for research;

Include disability issues in protocols for designing research programmes;

Ensure that research methods capture data that is disability-specific, gender-specific, age-specific and adapted to local language and cultural variations;

Ensure that persons with disabilities are included as researchers, not only respondents or subjects.

Disabled People's Organisations shall:

Seek accreditation for civil society representation at the UNGASS through UNAIDS;

Provide/give input into HIV/AIDS country reports through governments;

Solicit the Civil Society Task Force for the High Level HIV/AIDS Meetings for membership and active participation;

Implement measures for the protection and promotion of the rights, needs, confidentiality and dignity of persons with disabilities living with HIV and AIDS;

Raise awareness among persons with disabilities and build HIV/AIDS into their regular programmes;
Avail human resources/disability experts to support the HIV/AIDS response for disabled and non-disabled people at all level

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***********************

Chers membres du Comité de Pilotage, Sympathisants et Amis de la Campagne Africaine,

Cela fait tout juste 3 semaines depuis que nous nous sommes retrouvés pour la seconde Assemblée Générale de la Campagne Africaine sur le Handicap et le VIH&SIDA. C'était dans la jolie ville de Kampala, Ouganda du 11 au 13 Avril 2008.

Nous aimerions encore une fois saisir cette opportunité pour exprimer notre gratitude à l'Union Nationale des Personnes Handicapées d'Ouganda, au Gouvernement Ougandais, par le biais du Ministère de Genre, du Travail et du Développement Social pour avoir généreusement abrité cette rencontre. Nos remerciements vont également au Secrétariat de la Décennie, Handicap International et encore une fois au NUDIPU pour son soutien sans
faille lors de cet événement. Et enfin, à tous les membres du Comité National d'Organisation pour leur contribution exceptionnelle et efforts considérables déployés avant et durant la réunion. Cela n'aurait pas été possible sans votre dure labeur et nuit sans sommeil !!!

Nous étions plus de 170 délégués venant de plus de 20 pays Africains et 10 hors du continent. Des représentants de la société civile, du gouvernement, d'Institutions académiques, d'ONG internationales, d'Agences de Financement, des partenaires internationaux travaillant dans le domaine du VIH/SIDA et des médias étaient également présents lors de ce grand
rendez-vous.

L'aboutissement de tous nos efforts comme vous le savez, est la Déclaration de Kampala sur le Handicap et le VIH&SIDA. A cela s'ajoute, les discussions fructueuses notées au sein des groupes, la mise en place de 5 groupes de travail avec des plans d'action sur les objectifs de la Campagne et l'entrée au sein du comité de pilotage de nouveaux membres. (ci-joint le texte intégral de la déclaration en Anglais, Portugais et Français, sera transféré ASAP
La Déclaration appelle les gouvernements, les prestataires de services, l'Union Africaine, les Agences des NU, les Agences de financement, les Institutions Académiques et les Organisations de Personnes Handicapées à entreprendre les actions suivantes :

• L'accès égal à la prévention et aux services du VIH/SIDA et
• La pleine participation des personnes handicapées à la réponse au VIH/SIDA dans chaque pays et à tous les niveaux.

Nous vous encourageons ainsi, à faire de cette Déclaration une large diffusion dans votre pays, auprès des personnes handicapées, des gouvernements, des prestataires de services, des Agences des NU, des Agences de Financement, des Institutions Académiques. Saisissez les opportunités que vous avez avec les médias pour relayer cet important message auprès du grand public et le publier sur le site web de votre organisation.

Permettez nous également, de vous présenter le comité de pilotage qui s'est élargit et d'accueillir chaleureusement les 3 nouveaux venus :

• M. Tambo Camara (Panafricaine des Personnes Handicapées (PAFOD) - Mauritanie;
• Mme. Farida Gulamo (Association des Mozambicains Handicapés (ADEMO) - Mozambique;
• M. Martin Babu Mwesigwa (Union Nationale des Personnes Handicapées d'Ouganda (NUDIPU) - Ouganda;
• Dr. Elly Macha (Union Africaine des Aveugles (AFUB) - Kenya;
• Mme. Rachel Kachaje (Fédération des Personnes Handicapées d'Afrique Australe (SAFOD) – Malawi;
• M. Obuya George Onyango (Union Africaine des Sourds (ADU) - Kenya;
• M. Paul Tezanou (Membre du Conseil D'Administration du Secrétariat de la Décennie) - Cameroun ;
• L'Honorable Député, Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu (Parlementaire Sud Africaine; Représentante de la structure exécutive du Conseil National de Lutte contre le Sida) Afrique du Sud) – Afrique du Sud;
• Mme. Fri Beatrice Bime (Global Fund) – Genève NEW
• M. Oumar Diop (Handicap FormEduC, Centre de Ressources pour la Promotion des Droits des Personnes Handicapées) – Sénégal NEW
• M. David O. Anyaele (Centre des Citoyens Handicapés) – Nigéria NEW

Autre changement, le départ du Dr Susan Girois de l'Equipe de Gestion de la Campagne à qui nous disons aurevoir. Elle ne sera plus activement impliquée dans le travail de l'Equipe de Gestion de la Campagne (EGC), cependant son expertise sera toujours mise à contribution. Son expérience, ses conseils and sa spontanéité seront plus souvent sollicités qu'elle ne le pense. Sa participation active nous manquera mais la sachant sur répondeur nous rassure. Dans le même temps, nous aimerions souhaiter la bienvenue au sein de l'ECG à Kevin Henderson, Conseiller Technique en VIH&SIDA à Handicap International et Aïda Sarr Assistante du Programme Régional pour l'Afrique de l'Ouest, Central et du Nord, du Secrétariat de la Décennie Africaine des Personnes Handicapées.

Un rapport détaillé y compris la liste des participants vous sera transmis par email end -Avril. Si vous avez besoin d'une copie sur CD, envoyez nous un email à cette adresse : khenderson@handicap-international.or.ke.

Nous souhaitons que vous nous teniez informer des derniers développements dans vos pays respectifs, régions et districts et nous promettons de les partager avec le reste du monde.

Gouwah Samuels, Kevin Henderson, Aïda Sarr
Equipe de Gestion de la Campagne



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Foreign Aid Is An ATM

The Global Fund gave the money to the country of Uganda as part of an HIV "package" that included HIV treatment, condoms, and counseling and testing. However, an auditing firm determined that no one knew where the money was! Similar scandals erupted in Kenya and Nigeria. In Zambia, a permanent secretary of health diverted funds to buy a "cure" for HIV from a businessman in Bulgaria. As a result of widespread corruption, not only have vast amounts of money been squandered, but a sense of good will has been demeaned. Epstein implies that the repercussions are dire for the image of Africans in general, but more importantly, that when the money is there, it isn't achieving its goals. She writes,

As AIDS spending skyrocketed between 2000 and 2005, the HIV rate did not decline at all...

WHY isn't the money helping? It's true that HIV/AIDS funding is needed, and the package isn't a bad idea! In the book, a young man thanks Epstein when he finds out she's American because he is taking antiretroviral drugs paid for by PEPFAR. In other words, treatment for those infected is expensive and greatly appreciated. But something is going wrong. Many of the Ugandans worry that the HIV/AIDS money has helped to encourage what they call a "Pajero" culture, referencing the many big white SUVs that have appeared along with the NGOs. This culture represents how HIV/AIDS has become an industry for those in need of careers instead of a horrible disease. This is very clear to me as a student in the school of public health. Many of the students are focused on how they can help build capacity of local networks in Africa to stop the spread of HIV, and some are looking for paid travel experiences that are legitimized as humanitarian work.

However, Epstein believes that the disturbing trend of corruption in Africa is due to “many factors,” and neither the aid industry nor Africans should be blamed. She suggests that people have “grown indifferent” to the spread of AIDS, and that the money has created a “crisis of modernity” in which Africans struggle to transition to a modern bureaucratic state. Though they are transitioning, they still participate in the tribal kinship links that have always comprised their community networks. The kinship networks allow people to rely on each other, and oblige those who have money to help those without. When aid organizations like the Global Fund give money to officials in charge of HIV organizations, they may be contributing to the bureaucratization of the epidemic, thereby losing the human side of the disease. The campaigns that have decreased the incidence and prevalence of HIV were campaigns that counted on a lot of solidarity, support and empathy. The loss of humanity combined with those extensive kinship networks may have encouraged politicians, leaders, programmers, and ministers to use the funds for themselves and their personal friends. I think William Easterly says it best when he writes in White Man’s Burden that the programs create “perverse incentives” that “electrify the power grid” of those kinship links.

It is hard not to place blame on someone, though. I would rather like to blame poorly designed foreign aid programs and the officials that have not found a way to help their families by using their own money. Some believe that the answer lies in seeing the poorest people in the world as marketable; they believe in the private sector as a development actor. The private sector’s role would include encouraging entrepreneurship which would allow people to take care of themselves instead of relying on aid. I think this is a good idea for development, (micro credit is not a panacea,)but it hasn’t done much good yet. Yes, it’s empowering for people to control their means of production. Yes, women are better off when they don’t have to engage in risky behaviors to “keep a man” who will support them. But what I believe is truly needed is an approach that builds on positive networks already established that people trust. There should be participation on the part of the host country nationals at all stages of any program that is started: needs assessments, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation. Most importantly, any approach in the fight against AIDS needs to be something that the people themselves can relate to, (such as ABC in Uganda,) with options for reduction of risk all types of behaviors. People need to see, hear, and feel the message from the government, television, their doctor, the private sector, the state, and NGOs. This is not a battle that can be fought by the ATM alone.

Problem is, he (and the entire episode) blurs important boundaries between commercial advertising and politics. Disease is a public concern. By privatizing it, disease becomes public relations strategy.

The emerging role of advertisers as gatekeepers for political messages is a trend to be feared, especially with a Supreme Court that stands ready to bury the doctrine that distinguishes commercial speech (which may be regulated to protect the public) from political speech (which is protected by the First Amendment).

Nowadays, it seems unimaginable for anybody, including Bono, to organize an event on the scale of the Global Fund without turning to corporate America. Indeed the Global Fund receives more money from the Red Campaign than from Russia.

But why would Bono get into bed with Fox/ News Corp.  In part this is the problem.  Bono sees an opportunity to leverage News Corp and American Idol to address complex social issues. What advertisers see is an ability to leverage desired demographics (18- to 49-year-olds) in furtherance of commercial advertising.

Some suggest that it doesn’t matter who is using whom as long as important issues such as AIDS and global warming are being addressed.

But more is at stake than these two key social issues. Politics and social causes are the stuff of society’s public sphere, but the public sphere is being overwhelmed by the corporate logic of cause-related marketing.  Public relations campaigns do not respond to crises; they provide window dressing.

The privatizing of Bono’s AIDS-prevention message offers a window on how this phenomenon is transforming political speech. As disease is privatized, sponsors of the Red Campaign take Bono’s message, produce surreal versions of it, infuse it into products and then market it back to consumers. Consider a current Gap Red Campaign advertisement: “Can a T-shirt save the world? This one can! … 20,000. The number of women and children in Africa who can receive AIDS treatment for a year thanks to the contributions from your purchases of Gap Product Red.”

Is this ad commercial or political? Does it propose a commercial transaction? Is it misleading?

Advertising in the 21st century is less about proposing a transaction and more about constructing identities around corporate brands. But constructing personal and social identity fits more closely with political than commercial speech.

The First Amendment protects the sort of political dialogue Bono is promoting and prevents the government from regulating such dialogue without some extremely good reason. But the government is allowed to protect consumers from misleading product information by regulating commercial speech.

Because it is impossible to parse the political from the commercial in the Gap ads, this sort of advertising lends support to ongoing efforts by neoliberal, pro-deregulation forces to move advertising into the “political speech” category.

The problem is that oil and pharmaceutical companies, for example, would also seek protection from government regulators by hiding behind political-speech safeguards. But limits on commercial speech are there for a good reason.

Mingling commercial and political speech would allow corporations to mislead — even lie to — the public about such matters as product safety, product effectiveness and corporate profits. Another danger is that once corporations start calling the shots and setting the agenda regarding HIV/AIDS, potential remedies for these ills would likely be limited to those that are also profitable.

The proponents of the Red Campaign favor government regulation — for example, of the price of anti-HIV/AIDS pharmaceuticals — even if this dampens the corporate bottom line.

As Bono is devoting his lives to building awareness about global warming and HIV/AIDS, it would be a shame to see the legacy of the Red Campaign interfere with the solutions these activists seek to deliver.

It matters who is using whom after all.

This is a revised version of an earlier post and op-ed that appeared in the Baltimore Sun

In their press section, a June 14, 2007 press release announced, "Converse announces today that Common, Grammy award winning hip-hop artist and actor, will be the face of Converse (PRODUCT) RED.  Common will appear in Converse’s first national print campaign to further support Converse’s partnership with (PRODUCT) RED.  The Fall 2007 advertising campaign is entitled “Weapon of Change” featuring irreverent messages and bold illustrations encouraging consumers to be optimistic rebels and become agents of change.  The Converse (PRODUCT) RED Weapon® will be available exclusively through Foot Locker, Inc. and on www.converse.com."  Later in the release it said, "Depending on the product sold, 5% - 15% of net sales from Converse (PRODUCT) RED shoes will go to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (Geneva, Switzerland).  (PRODUCT) RED is an economic initiative created by Bono (U2, singer and activist) and Bobby Shriver (Chairman of DATA – Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa), designed to deliver a sustainable flow of private sector money to the Global Fund to invest in African AIDS programs with an emphasis on the health of women and children."

OK...so now I am done with RED for now!!  Onwards!