The President’s Emergency Plan For Aids Relief (PEPFAR) is an initiative started by then-President George W. Bush in 2003.  PEPFAR was design to address the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa by providing antiretroviral treatments to people in resource-limited settings.  According to a February 14, 2013 Foreign Policy article, the program is estimated to have saved million of lives in the last ten years.  However, some parts of the program have been heavily criticized for attempting to impose an outside set of values on communities that are significantly different culturally.  

In 2003, Congress adopted an amendment proposed by Rep. Joseph Pitts (R-Pa.) which required that one third of the annual prevention budget be directed to abstinence education programs.  Humanitarian organizations that did not promote abstinence education would not receive funding.  In the last ten years, more than $1.4 billion was spent on the promotion of abstinence education, with $311 million provided in 2008 alone.  Considering that research indicated for years that abstinence education did not work in the United States, it is strange for Congress to continuously fund similar projects in Africa.

As one might expect, abstinence education has not worked.  In May 2016, Health Affairs published a study conducted by Stanford University that indicated abstinence education has failed  in Africa.  More than 800,000 men and women participated in the survey which compared sexual attitudes of Africans in 14 PEPFAR funded to 8 non-PEPFAR countries.  The report analyzed teenage pregnancy rates, number of sexual partners, and the age of first sexual intercourse and found no significant difference between PEPFAR and non-PEPFAR countries.  For instance, men and women from Nigeria, which is covered by the program, had nearly identically number of sexual partners and teenage pregnancy rates as their peers in Gabon, which is not part of the program.  This means $1.4 billion in taxpayer money has been spent with no measurable results.

The federal government reduced spending on abstinence programs in recent years.  In 2013, abstinence programs received $45 million dollars, which is significantly less compared to 2008, but since these programs have not changed sexual attitudes of Africans 10 years after implementation, they should be scrapped altogether. 

Of course, members of Congress have also forced through funding for abstinence education domestically, most recently a $5 million earmark in fiscal year (FY) 2015.  Congress has added 129 earmarks worth $23.2 million for such programs since FY 2001.  Since 1996, the United States has spent more than $1.8 billion on abstinence education programs.  The Obama administration recommended cutting funding for abstinence education in its FY 2016 budget. 

  -- Filip Cukovic