Hundreds of millions in federal taxpayer dollars have been given to organizations around the world that likely facilitate prostitution and the sex industry, a watchdog group has found.
Through the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) program, the U.S. government has doled out roughly $385 million to foreign organizations suspected of violating U.S. policy on sex work and prostitution advocacy, according to a complaint filed by the Center to Advance Security in America (CASA) and obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation. In addition to the grants that have already been spent, CASA uncovered another $480 million in obligated funds to the same groups.
CASA is calling on the State Department’s Office of Inspector General to conduct a comprehensive audit of the PEPFAR program.
“The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June 2020 that foreign organizations receiving federal money must have policies opposing prostitution and sex trafficking,” CASA Director James Fitzpatrick stated to the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Our team at CASA has uncovered organizations receiving PEPFAR funds who not only do not have policies opposing, but are actively promoting, the sex work industry.”
“Now is the perfect time for a full audit of the PEPFAR program given our alarming findings,” Fitzpatrick continued.
The George W. Bush administration created PEPFAR in 2003 with the stated pledge of $15 billion over five years to help turn the tide against the AIDS pandemic in the hardest-hit countries in Africa and the Caribbean, according to CASA. The U.S. has committed around $110 billion through the program since its creation.
Despite the exorbitant amount of money committed to the program, its funding does come with some constraints. A Supreme Court ruling in 2020 — Agency for International Development et al. v. Alliance for Open Society International, Inc. — found that foreign organizations can be required to have policies explicitly opposing sex trafficking and prostitution to receive funding from the U.S. government.
Despite this condition, CASA says it uncovered a litany of PEPFAR funding recipients that actively promote the industry.
PEPFAR has awarded roughly $28 million and has over $4 million in outstanding obligations to LVCT Health in Kenya, according to the watchdog. However, one of the groups LVCT Health allegedly works with is Bar Hostess, a group that bills itself as an organization “for and by all women working in bars and sex workers in Kenya” and other social media activity suggests it’s a group tailored for sex workers.
Youth Net and Counseling, a group based in the African country of Malawi, has been awarded $2.7 million in PEPFAR contracts, according to CASA. The organization has allegedly partnered with the “Female Sex Workers Association of Malawi,” which is led by female sex workers who make their income from prostitution.
A Jamaican organization, the Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition, is slated to receive $2.5 million in federal government contracts, according to CASA. However, the group bills itself as a “coalition of community leaders and nongovernmental agencies that are advocates and service providers. These groups include men who have sex with men, persons of trans experience, sex workers, people who use drugs” and others.
CASA has highlighted other international organizations likely violating U.S. policy on PEPFAR funding.
“Like many government programs, while PEPFAR was well intended and had some success, it has become a vessel for waste and the Left’s progressive social agenda,” CASA wrote in its complaint to the State Department. “Based on our research detailed above, and the potential for other possible illegal spending in the program, we are urging the Department to conduct a full financial and performance audit of PEPFAR.”
Representatives for LVCT Health, Youth Net and Counseling and the Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the DCNF.
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