proximately 10 percent of the world’s population but 
more than 70 percent of the worldwide total of peo-
ple infected with HIV. 
(5) In November 2002, the Joint United Na-
tions Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) reported 
that in 2002, 29,400,000 people were living with 
HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa, an increase from 
28,500,000 people in 2001. 
(6) At the end of 2001, an estimated 
21,500,000 Africans had lost their lives to AIDS, in-
cluding an estimated 2,200,000 individuals who died 
in that year. UNAIDS estimates that by 2020, an 
additional 55,000,000 Africans will lose their lives to 
the epidemic. 
(7) The HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa is having 
a much greater impact on children than is the case 
in other parts of the world. 
(8) According to UNAIDS, more than 600,000 
African infants become infected with HIV each year 
through mother-to-child transmission, either at birth 
or through breast-feeding. These children have short 
life expectancies, and the number currently alive 
may be about 1,000,000 children. 
(9) In 2001, an estimated 11,000,000 children 
who became orphans by AIDS were living in Africa.
(10) Because of the stigma attached to AIDS, 
children who become orphans by AIDS are at high 
risk for being malnourished, abused, and denied an 
education. 
(11) According to UNAIDS, women make up 
an estimated 58 percent of the HIV-positive adult 
population in sub-Saharan Africa, as compared to 
50 percent of the HIV-positive adult population 
worldwide. 
(12) Young women are particularly at risk. In 
2001, an estimated 6 to 11 percent of African 
women aged 15 to 24 were HIV-positive, compared 
to 3 to 6 percent of young men. 
(13)(A) The HIV-infection rate among adults is 
approximately 8.8 percent in Africa, compared with 
1.2 percent worldwide. The HIV/AIDS epidemic in 
sub-Saharan Africa is a major component of this Af-
rican crisis. 
(B) In 7 sub-Saharan African countries, 20 
percent or more of the adult population is infected 
with HIV, and the rate has reached 38.8 percent in 
Botswana. 
(C) Moreover, in Cameroon, a West African 
country, the adult HIV-infection rate has increased 
from 4.7 percent in 1996 to 11.8 percent in 2001.
(D) In Nigeria, with a population that exceeds 
125,000,000, an estimated 5.8 percent of adults 
were HIV-positive in 2001, and infection rates in 
some areas of Nigeria have reached levels seen in 
neighboring Cameroon. 
(14) Nongovernmental organizations working in 
Africa, donor governments, and African governments 
have responded to the HIV/AIDS epidemic primarily 
by attempting to reduce the number of new HIV in-
fections, and to some degree, by trying to ameliorate 
the damage done by AIDS to families, societies, and 
economies. 
(15)(A) A 1999 United Nations study found 
that community-based organizations, sometimes with 
the support of nongovernmental organizations, have 
emerged to supply additional labor, home care for 
the sick, house repair, and other services to AIDS-
afflicted families. 
(B) Programs and projects aimed at combating 
the epidemic typically provide information on how 
HIV is spread, and on how it can be avoided, 
through the media, posters, lectures, and skits. 
AIDS awareness programs can be found in many 
African schools and increasingly in the workplace, 
where employers are recognizing their interest in re-
ducing the HIV-infection rate among their employ-
ees. 
(16) Public-private partnerships have also be-
come an important vehicle for responding to the 
HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa. 
(17)(A) The United States Agency for Inter-
national Development estimates that in fiscal year 
2000, all donors and lending agencies, together with 
African 
governments, 
spent 
approximately 
$500,000,000 in combating HIV/AIDS, but donors 
have committed to increasing this amount. 
(B) On July 23, 2000, leaders at the G–8 world 
economic summit in Okinawa, Japan, pledged to re-
duce the number of young people infected with the 
HIV virus by 25 percent. 
(18) The World Health Organization estimates 
that a pledge by the G–8 countries to combat ma-
laria and tuberculosis, and reduce the HIV virus in 
Africa 
by 
percent, 
would 
cost 
at 
least 
$5,000,000,000 per year for 5 years. The World 
Bank launched its Multi-Country HIV/AIDS Pro-
gram (MAP) for Africa in September 2000, and a 
World Bank official said in October 2002 that to 
date, $1,000,000,000 had been committed.
(19) On December 9, 2001, Peter Piot, Execu-
tive Director of UNAIDS, told an international 
AIDS conference in Burkina Faso that assistance to 
fight HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa should be in-
creased ‘‘many-fold’’, and that the region requires 
$5,000,000,000 per year to confront the HIV/AIDS 
pandemic. 
(20) While the AIDS epidemic in Caribbean 
countries does not compare to the severity of the 
epidemic in Africa, there are an estimated 420,000 
people living with AIDS in Caribbean countries. 
Moreover, the HIV/AIDS adult prevalence rate in 
several countries in the Caribbean is among the 
highest outside of sub-Saharan Africa. 
(21) Caribbean countries with the highest prev-
alence of HIV infection rates are Haiti and the Ba-
hamas, with adult HIV infection rates at more than 
4 percent. Overall, an estimated 1 out of 50 people 
in Caribbean countries is infected with HIV. Haiti 
and the Dominican Republic, with a combined 
340,000 adults and children living with HIV/AIDS, 
account for approximately 87 percent of the infected 
population of Caribbean countries. As noted by the 
United States Agency for International Develop-
ment, Haiti’s poverty, civil conflict, and unstable
governance have contributed to the rapid spread of 
AIDS. In some urban areas of Haiti, HIV infection 
rates are at more than 10 percent of the population. 
(22) In Caribbean countries, access to treat-
ment and care is non-existent for many infected with 
HIV. Nevertheless, many projects demonstrate that 
even in severely impoverished countries with little 
health infrastructure, there can be sustained treat-
ment for people with HIV/AIDS. 
SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS. 
It is the sense of Congress that—
(1) effectively addressing the HIV/AIDS prob-
lem in countries in sub-Saharan Africa and the Car-
ibbean is a moral issue of the greatest magnitude 
and is in the national security interest of the United 
States; and 
(2) the President should enter into direct talks 
with the governments of other member countries of 
the G–8 and member countries of the European 
Union to increase the amount of financial support to 
combat the HIV/AIDS pandemic in sub-Saharan Af-
rica and the Caribbean.