"Bush Has Quietly Tripled Aid to Africa"

Read the full article by Michael A. Fletcher, The Washington Post, December 31, 2006.

The United States has tripled direct humanitarian and development aid to Africa since 2001, and the Bush Administration recently vowed to double that increased amount by 2010 -- to nearly $9 billion. Direct development and humanitarian aid to Africa increased to more than $4 billion a year from $1.4 billion in 2001, according to the OECD and four African nations -- Sudan, Ethiopia, Egypt and Uganda -- rank among the world's top 10 recipients in aid from the United States. Bush launched a $1.2 billion malaria initiative in June 2005 with the goal of reducing malaria-related deaths in 15 African countries by 50 percent. The disease kills more than 1 million people a year, most of them African children under age 5. "The malaria program complements the president's largest global health initiative, the $15 billion, five-year plan known as the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). Under the program, about 800,000 Africans are receiving drugs that enable them to live longer with the disease and help to prevent mother-to-child transmission of the virus."