Conversations on Health - Global

The Conversations on Health initiative features one-on-one dialogues about major health issues. In honour of World AIDS Day 2003, the first hour-long discussion of the series focussed on the commitment of the world's governments to fighting the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Bono is the funder of DATA (Debt, AIDS, Trade, Africa); he discussed the USA and global commitment to combating HIV/AIDS, the doubling of United States assistance to Africa in the new budget, and the US$2 billion increase in overall assistance to poor countries in 2004. In the course of the conversation, he called on the US government to quickly deliver the promised funding. He provided insight on his travels and first-hand experiences on how the epidemic is affecting people in Africa and around the world. Bono also responded to questions from the media and an invited audience, as well as from people around the world who sent questions via email in advance of or during the broadcast. This session was hosted by former ABC News Special Correspondent and current KFF Senior Visiting Fellow Jackie Judd.

In addition to face-to-face dialogue, this initiative uses technology - a webcam for live broadcast and, later, archived versions of the webcast and PDF script files - to broadcast the dialogues and encourage community participation. For instance, the live webcast of the Bono conversation was made available starting at noon on December 3 2003; click here to view the interview or download a script in PDF format.

Health, HIV/AIDS.

KFF states that more than 40 million people are estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS around the world and almost 14,000 people are newly infected each day.

KFF is a non-profit, independent national (USA) health care philanthropy dedicated to providing information and analysis on health issues to policymakers, the media, and the general public.