ONE Campaign Pledges $30M To Encourage Presidential Candidates To Support Efforts To Fight Global Poverty, HIV/AIDS

June 14, 2007 – 6:20 pm | posted in Aid / Disasters, HIV / AIDS

The ONE Campaign has launched a $30 million initiative aimed at encouraging presidential candidates to support efforts to fight global poverty, HIV/AIDS and other diseases, such as tuberculosis and malaria, the New York Times reports. According to the Times, ONE Vote ‘08 this fall will ask presidential candidates to sign a pledge stating they will offer proposals on a global level to fight HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria; improve children’s health; increase access to education; provide access to clean water; and reduce by half the number of people who suffer from hunger.

The campaign will be supported in part by a $22 million donation from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Times reports. The Democratic and Republican national committees on Monday endorsed the effort and said that presidential candidates should add proposals to fight poverty in their campaign agendas (Zeleny, New York Times, 5/12). Efforts to encourage candidates to support the campaign will be headed by former Sens. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), the AP/Chicago Tribune reports.

Advocates will encourage candidates to address the issues through town hall meetings, mailings, a celebrity bus tour and television advertisements. The campaign initially will focus on states that hold early primary elections — such as Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire and South Carolina — and later will expand to more than 12 states that will hold primary elections on Feb. 5, 2008. The campaign will continue through the general election, the AP/Tribune reports (Jalonick, AP/Chicago Tribune, 6/11).

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