Scroll through videos on the left to get to Jay's. His talk was supposed to be a exchange with Sheila Kennedy, a frequent critic of faith-based delivery of government-funded social services. Sheila couldn't get out of Montana that day, so that debate will have to wait. (It's too perfect not to take place eventually.)
One of Jay's achievements while he was in the White House was linking President Bush's two passions for faith-based initiatives and finding relief for AIDS-ravaged Africa. These are two areas in which you can expect continuity when President Obama moves into the White House. Jay recently wrote an article in the Indianapolis Star praising the President's Emergency Program for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and other aspects of the outgoing Admin's policies towards Africa.
Rush job saves lives of African AIDS sufferers
President George W. Bush is famously punctual. This was on my mind as I prepared to offer him a briefing last year. I arrived outside the Oval Office 20 minutes before the meeting was scheduled to begin only to find out he was running 15 minutes early, making me barely on time.
So I was not surprised to listen to the president's recent World AIDS Day remarks announcing that the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief had met its goal of providing life-saving drug therapy to more than 2 million patients -- ahead of schedule.
The achievement is remarkable on several levels. First, consider that merely 50,000 people suffering from AIDS across the continent of Africa received such medication five years ago when the president's plan was announced. Second, consider that while PEPFAR was the single largest health-care program aimed at a single disease in world history, it is one of the only development programs to operate with strict accountability standards.
Conventional wisdom previously argued that African leaders were either too corrupt or too inept to deliver results in exchange for assistance. One of the most hopeful outcomes of PEPFAR's success is proving how wrong conventional wisdom was on both counts.
I had the privilege of joining Rwandan President Paul Kagame in Kagali when he announced that his country not only met the PEPFAR performance standard but exceeded it -- well before the deadline. The U.S. and Rwanda presidents clearly have an affinity for performance and schedule and they also favor non-government actors. Both are quick to point out that the real work is done by health professionals in faith-based and community clinics.
This story is familiar to Hoosiers. In the late 1980s, the Indiana University School of Medicine set up shop in northern Kenya to pursue its mission of providing medical care to the indigent, teaching the next generation of doctors and conducting world-class research. What it did not intend to do was become one of Africa's leading solutions combating the world's deadliest pandemic.
But AIDS soon became such an overwhelming presence in its facilities that IU-Kenya program officials were required to respond with heartland compassion and innovation. Matching private philanthropy with dynamic partnerships, the university formed an Academic Model for Providing Access to Healthcare that now treats 70,000 Kenyans at 19 sites.
The IU-Kenya Partnership's success was born of necessity and grown through its commitment to indigenous leadership. The program's impressive results earned the respect of Bush administration officials, who recently awarded it a five-year, $60 million PEPFAR grant. This funding will ensure that 150,000 AIDS-infected Kenyans will be served by 2012.
Odds are good that this target will be met on schedule. For the Kenyans served by IU-sponsored doctors and the millions of other Africans given a new lease on life thanks to American generosity, PEPFAR is a presidential achievement that did not come a minute too soon.
What makes the Indy-Africa connection special — perhaps even unique — right now is the extraordinary ferment at the grassroots level with the presence on the community some of the decade's most influential policymakers on Africa. Jim Morris, Randall Tobias, Sen. Richard Lugar ... and now Jay Hein. Jay is a very generous person who is eager to share his experiences, lessons, and connections with anyone who wants to make a difference. You can reach him at jay@sipr.org. Welcome back, Jay!
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