PEPFAR Reauthorization
PEPFAR Reauthorized for One Year
On March 23, 2024, the US Congress passed a funding bill that was signed by President Biden and includes a one-year reauthorization for PEPFAR (which would need to be reauthorized again on March 25th, 2025). While CCIH is grateful the reauthorization continues the bipartisan consensus and support of global health programs, we hope Congress will use this extra time to provide a multi-year reauthorization to PEPFAR soon. This would allow partners to more accurately plan out their own activities and support programs that address HIV/AIDS. See more below about the challenges to PEPFAR, unfounded rumors and how CCIH and others in the faith community have responded in defense of PEPFAR, one of the most successful and lifesaving health programs.
Rumors Regarding PEPFAR and Abortions
The 2023 PEPFAR (the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) reauthorization was complicated by rumors that the program funds abortions. Shepherd Smith, Co-founder of Children’s AIDS Fund International has been a strong advocate for and involved in Christian work to care for and provide support for people living with HIV for many years, going back to before PEPFAR’s creation.
Shepherd Smith researched the situation and found no evidence to support the rumor that PEPFAR is funding – or has funded – abortion or promoted abortion and wrote a summary of his findings, as well as an opinion piece explaining why Why a One-Year PEPFAR-Reauthorization Is a Really Bad Idea. In the piece Shepherd explains the pitfalls of the one-year reauthorization and presents why conservatives and pro-life advocates who have knowledge about the program and work in developing countries have always been supportive of PEPFAR.
Opinion Pieces from Faith Actors Supporting a Clean PEPFAR Reauthorization
CCIH, the Christian Health Association of Kenya and the Cameroon Baptist Convention Health Services contributed to this opinion piece posted by the Global AIDS Policy Partnership on “Why Christian Organizations Want Congress to Reauthorize PEPFAR.”
In this opinion piece in the New York Times, Father Richard Bauer shares his experience working for 25 years in clinics for people with HIV in Kenya, Tanzania and Namibia and the transformational impact he saw from PEPFAR. Father Bauer is a Roman Catholic priest with the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers who serves as a hospital chaplain and social worker. In the piece, he expresses his support for a clean five-year PEPFAR reauthorization and debunks the rumors that PEPFAR funds have been used for abortions.
World Relief President and CEO Myal Greene wrote an opinion piece published in The Hill about PEPFAR and why he supports it: PEPFAR is a pro-life miracle – evangelicals must continue to support it.
Advocacy Resources
CCIH Advocacy Toolkit
CCIH released this advocacy toolkit in 2022 that we hope members will be able to use and customize to achieve their advocacy goals. We aim for it to be useful for organizations that have been advocating for years, as well as for those who are just beginning. To help guide development of the toolkit, CCIH conducted several focus group conversations with members to learn more about their advocacy outreach and ways that CCIH might be more effective in supporting those efforts.
CCIH Advocacy Advisor Bob Noziglia wrote this blogpost to share some highlights of those conversations and what we’ve learned, as well as a follow up piece to explore the influence of faith communities a little deeper. We hope you will use the toolkit and we would appreciate hearing from you about your thoughts or suggestions for advocacy tools so we can continuously improve the toolkit.
CCIH Voice on the Global Stage
CCIH staff participate in many advisory councils, coalitions, communities of practice, networks, roundtables, and working groups to share our expertise on a variety of issues and speak up for faith-based actors. See a list of groups
Why Christians Support Strong Global Health Programs
This two-page brief explains why US support of strong global health programs aligns with Christian values and is a wise investment to protect security and economies.
Christian Voices on the Importance of Advocacy
In this video, CCIH members explain the value of U.S. foreign assistance and why advocating and speaking out for those without a voice is important to them as Christians.
Issues & Actions
December, 2024
Faith Community Support of PEPFAR
CCIH organized a letter from many leaders in the faith community to the leadership of the US Senate and the US House Foreign Relations Committee asking for their support of a five-year reauthorization of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). The letter emphasizes that we can end HIV/AIDS as a public health threat by the year 2030, and that our extraordinary progress is evidence that we should not stop now and should continue to press forward toward this compelling goal, to protect the lives of millions of God’s children, whose futures are at risk.
November, 2024
Support for Combatting Global Hunger in SFOPs Funding Bill
CCIH joined other advocates in signing onto a letter to the leadership of the Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs to address the unprecedented global food crisis, requesting sufficient funding for critical programs that save lives, protect livelihoods, and build resiliency and self-sufficiency as they conference the FY25 State, Foreign Operations bill. The letter expresses appreciation for the bipartisan support for addressing severe child malnutrition globally, including for life-saving Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food (RUTF). The letter also encourages broadening the scope to support the full spectrum of wasting treatment and prevention programming to successfully combat malnutrition.
See The LetterNovember, 2024
Addressing Hunger through FY25 Agriculture Funding
CCIH joined others in the Advocacy community in signing onto a letter to the leadership of the Subcommittee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration requesting sufficient funding for critical programs that save lives, protect livelihoods, and build resiliency and self-sufficiency as they conference the FY25 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration bill. The letter highlights that Food for Peace Title II and McGovern-Dole Food for Education and Child Nutrition programs provide food insecure communities around the world with critically needed support in the fight against hunger and malnutrition. These programs both help to respond to emergencies, as well as provide longer-term support for communities to sustain their food and nutrition security, strengthening the resilience of these communities against recurrent shocks.
See The LetterJuly, 2024
Protecting Life with Compassionate Aid in FY 2025
CCIH joined 63 other organizations in signing onto a letter urging the US Senate to safeguard and invest in critical funding for peacebuilding, human rights, humanitarian aid, migration, international climate finance, poverty-focused development assistance and related accounts in the Fiscal Year 2025 Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs (SFOPs) appropriations bill. The letter expresses concerns about funding cuts included in the House-passed SFOPs appropriations bill (H.R. 8771) and urges the Senate to support programs that prevent and address international crises and protect life, and protect the United States’ legacy of compassionate aid and international leadership.
See The Letter