World Bank: Not one approach, but many

The World Bank released a report yesterday entitled The Africa Multi-Country AIDS Program 2000-2006: Results of the World Bank’s Response to a Development Crisis. Advocating locally approapriate approaches to tackling the AIDS epidemic, it says, "the mobilization of empowered 'grassroots' communities, along with delivering condoms and life-saving treatments, are beginning to slow the pace of the continent's epidemic."

The articulated goals of the World Bank's Multi-Country AIDS Program have been to:
(1) to build strong political and government commitment to responding to HIV;
(2) to create a conducive institutional and resource-appropriate environment in which successful HIV/AIDS interventions could be scaled up to a national level;
(3) to make the HIV/AIDS response local—increasing community participation and ownership in HIV/AIDS interventions by providing financial resources and capacity building; and
(4) to move to a multisectoral approach involving all government sectors, with improved coordination at the national level and decentralization to subnational government structures.

Michel Kazatchkine said of the program, "It (MAP) was a precursor because of its specific objective of supporting civil society, which we know is a key component of the response against HIV/AIDS. In addition, the World Bank is in a privileged position to bring in the fight against HIV/ADS within the frame work of the fight against poverty and the fight for development and for promoting health in development."

Read the report and press release.