ACTIVITIES OF SECRETARY-GENERAL IN WASHINGTON, D.C., 31 MAY - 1 JUNE
Secretary-General Kofi Annan travelled to Washington, D.C., in the afternoon of Thursday, 31 May, to deliver the keynote address at the Global Health Council Annual Awards Banquet.
Focusing on the impact of the AIDS pandemic on women and girls, the Secretary-General said, “We must make sure that girls -- who run a particular risk of infection -- have all the skills, the services and the self-confidence to protect themselves”.
“And we must encourage men”, he added, “to replace risk-taking behaviour with taking responsibility”.
He called for a deep social revolution across all levels of society, that transforms relations between women and men, “so that women will be able to take greater control of their lives -- financially as well as physically”.
“When women are fully involved,” he asserted, “the benefits can be seen immediately: families are healthier”. (See Press Release SG/SM/7826-AIDS/12.)
The Global Health Council describes itself as the world’s largest group of professional health practitioners and enjoys substantial support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Melinda Gates presented the principal award of the evening, the Gates Award for Global Health, which is accompanied by a cash grant of $1 million. It was given to the Centre for Health and Population Research in Bangladesh, among other things for its discovery and development of oral rehydration therapy, which today saves the lives of an estimated 2.5 million children per year.
On Friday morning, the Secretary-General addressed over 500 members of the United States Chamber of Commerce, in an appeal to the business community for help in the global fight against AIDS, which he described as an “unparalleled nightmare”.
“As 42 per cent of United States exports go to markets in the developing world”, he argued, “the negative impact of AIDS on American business should be obvious”.
The epidemic is not only bad for business, he said, but also undermines regional and global security and stability.
He called on business to respond. “Business is used to acting decisively and quickly”, he said. “The same cannot always be said of the community of sovereign States. We need your help -- right now.”
Companies can adopt policies for the workplace for a start. But they can also be advocates of change, “speaking up, loud and often”. Silence and stigma, he said, “drive the virus underground and fuel its spread”.
Finally, he called on business to be a donor in the effort to raise spending on fighting the disease by five times in poor and middle-income countries, to $7-10 billion a year.
Harvard University estimates that AIDS has already cost the world more than $500 billion, he argued. “So 10 billion a year to defeat it seems fairly reasonable -- in fact, a bargain.” (See Press Release SG/SM/7827-AIDS/13.)
The Secretary-General took questions from the audience and later met with the press.
Later in the morning, he went to the State Department for a meeting organized at the last minute with Secretary of State Colin Powell, with whom he discussed the situations in Iraq and the Middle East, as well as Mr. Powell's recent visit to Africa, and the AIDS struggle.
On that same day the Secretary-General appointed Stephen Lewis of Canada as his Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa.
This was also the day when 12-year-old Nkosi Johnson died of the disease. The South African boy had raised consciousness in his country, as in the world, when he called, at the Thirteenth International AIDS Conference in Durban, for HIV-positive people to be treated equally. At a press encounter earlier, the Secretary-General commented that this courageous young man would be missed, and that in the fight against AIDS "we have lost a voice".