http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080216/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_africa

"His five-year, $15 billion AIDS relief plan is the largest-ever international health initiative devoted to one disease, raising the number of people on anti-retroviral treatments from 50,000 to 1.3 million.

A five-year, $1.2 billion anti-malaria initiative has reached 25 million Africans with insecticide-treated bed nets, a simple but effective solution to a deadly problem.

One foreign aid program started under Bush, the Millennium Challenge Corporation, limits U.S. development assistance only to nations that embrace democracy and free markets, fight corruption and invest in education and health. It has approved $5.5 billion in compacts with 16 countries, nine in Africa."

"Bush wants $30 billion over the next five years for his AIDS program. Democrats complain that is too little and there is debate about its emphasis on abstinence and requirement of anti-prostitution pledges.

His Millennium Challenge approach is more threatened, in part because of a slow initial pace of getting the money out. Lawmakers gave it $1.5 billion for the last budget year, half of Bush's request, and seem to be similarly inclined this year."


"Every one of the five countries on Bush's itinerary has a stake in that. Benin has a $307 million compact, Ghana has a $547 million one and the centerpiece of Bush's Tanzania visit is the signing of its $698 million deal, the biggest so far. Rwanda is a "threshold" country and Liberia's goal is to get there, too."