World Bank DC Meeting: AHF to Spark Conversations over Free Coffee Friday, 4/12

Advocates with the largest global AIDS organization trade coffee for
conversation in an effort to “Raise the MIC” (middle-income country
designations) and spotlight the World Bank’s harmful country
classification system.

Coffee cart with advocates providing free coffee to passersby—and
World Bank Meeting attendees—plays off AHF’s innovative prior ‘Coffee
Cup’ advocacy highlighting the fact that daily per capita incomes in
some World Bank-classified middle-income countries are about the cost of
a cup of coffee in many developed nations.

WASHINGTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–As World
Bank members and officials gather for the Bank’s Spring Meeting in
Washington, DC this week, AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF)
invites the public to join advocates for free coffee in front of World
Bank headquarters in hopes of sparking conversation and to once again
call for the Bank to “Raise the MIC” and change the way it classifies
middle-income countries (MICs).

According to the Bank’s current MIC classification system, countries can
be classified as middle-income when per capita income in a particular
country is as low as $2.73 per day—about the price
of a cup of coffee in most western or developed nations. In prior
years, AHF mounted billboard, ad and advocacy campaigns targeting the
World Bank using the cup of coffee comparison, touting the fact that
daily incomes that low are in reality NOT middle-income.

This year, AHF will now also provide free coffee at its coffee cart ‘Raise
the MIC’ rally and demonstration in front of World Bank headquarters
in Washington as a means to foster dialogue about raising the Bank’s
middle-income country classification system.

DC MEDIA CONTACTS:
Denys Nazarov, Director of Global Policy
& Communications for AHF, (323) 219-1091 cell [email protected]
John
Hassell, National Director of Advocacy for AHF (202) 774-4854 cell [email protected]

“There is a fundamental problem with the World Bank’s classification
system when it determines that a daily wage of two dollars and seventy
three cents is considered middle income,” said AHF Director of Policy
and Communications Denys Nazarov. “The Bank has essentially
established a poverty line for developing countries that multilateral
funders and pharmaceutical companies then use to determine who gets
vital resources to fight disease and who do not. We are urging the World
Bank to raise the MIC to ensure countries remain eligible to receive the
support they need to keep their citizens healthy.”

Based on gross national income (GNI) per capita, the MIC designation can
be particularly harmful in countries that creep out of a low-income
status and into a middle-income classification. The World Bank
artificially props up those nations with a “middle-income” label when a
significant disease burden often remains with no real increased ability
to combat public health issues on their own. MICs can also be straddled
with costs for medicine that are up to ten times higher than in
low-income countries.

“The global AIDS response has enough obstacles to overcome without
having to deal with an arbitrary economic classification further
disrupting efforts,” said AHF Chief of Global Advocacy and Policy Terri
Ford. “Funding has been stagnant for several years, and there are
still far too many new HIV infections. We must be able to get resources
to those who need them most, and people in ‘middle-income’ countries are
among that group. The World Bank should raise the MIC so we can get to
work ending HIV/AIDS where it hits people the hardest—in the developing
world.”

Everyone, including World Bank staff, is encouraged to look for AHF and
have a cup of complimentary coffee with advocates to discuss this
pressing public health issue. It will take a concerted effort to fight
infectious disease throughout the world, which cannot happen with
harmful policies in place. Join us on April 12 at World Bank
Headquarters to “Raise the MIC” and help end the HIV/AIDS epidemic!

AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global AIDS
organization, currently provides medical care and/or services to over 1
million clients in 43 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin
America/Caribbean, the Asia/Pacific Region and Eastern Europe. To learn
more about AHF, please visit our website: www.aidshealth.org,
find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/aidshealth
and follow us on Twitter: @aidshealthcare
and Instagram: @aidshealthcare

Contacts

US MEDIA CONTACTS:
Ged Kenslea, Senior Director,
Communications, AHF
+1 323 308 1833 work +1.323.791.5526 mobile
[email protected]

Denys Nazarov, Director of Global Policy &
Communications,
AHF
+1 323 219 1091
[email protected]