Ambassador Charlene Barshefsky, a UW-Madison alum, spoke Monday on the economic barriers facing Africa in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

Barshefsky was a trade representative for former President Bill Clinton’s administration, and played an instrumental role in the passage of the African Growth and Opportunity Act, which offers special trade benefits for reforming sub-Saharan African nations.

Barshefsky said the global economy is growing as a whole except in sub-Saharan Africa.

The three major flaws inhibiting Africa from economic growth are its focus on exporting commodities instead of manufacturing goods, its inability to harvest wealth towards public good and its high levels of internal instability including civil war, Barshefsky said.

All of these economic challenges inflict upon the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Africa is currently home to 12 percent of the world’s population and over 70 percent of the HIV/AIDS cases globally. According to Barshefsky, these countries have lost 20 years of life expectancy in the last 15 years to HIV/AIDS. The life expectancy is now 46 years old, Barshefsky said.

“This is a humanitarian crisis to be sure, but it is more than a humanitarian crisis. It is an economic crisis for these countries and a security crisis. It is a crisis of further substantial growth as the work force is depleted and as rural farmers are too ill to work,” Barshefsky said.

Barshefsky said African leaders and those from other countries fail to aide in Africa’s education and poor national health care system.

One of the most important things governments can do is commit to the funding they intend to put in their budgets, Barshefsky said.

Barshefsky’s lecture was a part of All-Campus Party and organized by UW-Madison’s Project 40/40. Project 40/40 is a fundraising and awareness campaign for HIV/AIDS on campus that seeks to partner UW-Madison’s 40,000-student population with 40,000 HIV positive Ugandans who are without treatment.

“We all need to be part of the solution and on my money would be on 40/40 as the place to start,” Barshefsky said.