Kofi Annan

United Nations (UN) Secretary General, Kofi Annan announced last month that he will donate his $100,000 award money from the Philadelphia Liberty Medal to the newly proposed UN Global AIDS Fund. Given annually since 1988, the award honors humanitarian efforts and achievements in promoting peace.

The announcement was followed by a pledge of $200 million to the fund from the Bush administration with a promise of additional contributions over the next few years. Annan estimates that fund money needs to rise to $7–10 billion annually to fight infectious diseases worldwide, particularly the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The fund will support disease prevention as well as treatment with reduced-cost drugs, and a task force, most probably run by the World Bank, will implement the measures. The comprehensive plan will be presented at a special UN session on 25–27 June.