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BANK REAFFIRMS ON MDG goal six.
Related to country: Malawi

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BANK REAFFIRMS ON MDG goal six.

KONDWANI

The World Bank has reaffirmed its commitment to support African Countries including Malawi to halt and begin to reverse the effects on not paying particular attention to the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) number six.

MDG goal six spells the need to combat HIV and AIDS, malaria and other diseases. Specifically, it talks about halting and beginning to reverse the spread of the pandemic and other diseases.

The bank says it will move from its initial emergency response to the next phase, contributing to a long-term sustainable multi-partner response.

To that, the bank has provided US$1.5 billion (K210 Billion, at Malawi’s official exchange rate) for the diseases’ programme in over 30 countries and five sub-regional projects addressing cross-border issues through the Multi-country HIV and AIDS programme for Africa (MAP).

“ The Bank’s support has contributed to results in prevention, care and treatment, impact mitigation and system strengthening reaching millions through prevention education messages, enrolling women in preventing mother to child transmission, supporting vulnerable children and working to strengthen health, fiduciary, monitoring and evaluation systems and AIDS institutions,” says the bank in a statement.

The commitment from the Bank could not have come at an opportune time like this when the newly released 2007 UNAIDS epidemic update shows that AIDS seams to have reached its peak and death rates are failing – Africa continues to bear the greatest burden.
“We recognize HIV and AIDS is a serious development challenge and dilutes our poverty reduction efforts,” says Obiageli Ezekwesili, the bank’s vice president for Africa region.

“The bank is determined to remain engaged over the long-term, working within our comparative strengths.” More than three quarters (about 76 %) of all AIDS – related deaths in 2007 and 68% of global new infections occurred in Africa and women, about 61%, are living with virus.
The bank’s new agenda for action is the result of an intensive analytical and consultative process that engaged over 1000 people from over 30 African partner countries plus donors and UN agencies.
Countries were consulted at all levels, including community, faith based Organisation and civil society organizations, research institutes, universities and people living with the virus.

“The inputs of the stakeholders are reflected in the main messages of the agenda for action,” adds the statement.
“The agenda’s strategic objectives are explicitly linked to results and include: assisting national development agenda, accelerating implementation and closing the implementation gap between available funding, strengthening nation and health systems and improving donor coordination and knowledge generation and sharing knowledge generation and sharing.

To accelerate the implementation purposes, the Africa region’s agenda for action is organized around four pillars, reflecting the critical human institution and financial challenges for the next generation of support.

The global pandemic is not a conventional disease and Africa is not a conventional region, says Elizabeth Lule, the Manager of the bank’s African region AIDS programme.
She adds: “If you add to that the everyday reality that the national health systems are overwhelmed and that most government lack the fiscal space to cope with the often volatile and unpredictable funding of the programmes…. There is need for the bank’s continued active engagement in the region.”

Since the bank launched its emergency response, funding for the mitigation of the disease has grown dramatically from US$1.6 billion in 2001 to US$8.9 billion in 2007 mainly from the Global Fund to find AIDS, tuberculosis and Malaria and the US President’s Emergency Plan for the AIDS relief (PEPFAR).

“Nonetheless, financing gaps exits and estimates US$18 billion is required in 2007 alone mostly needed for sub-Sahara Africa,” says the statement.

By October 2007, the bank has provided US$1.5 billion for HIV and AIDS programmes in over 30 countries (Malawi inclusive) plus 29 multi-country programme for Africa (MAP) countries and 5 sub-regional projects to address cross-border issues. (The Guardian News Paper of December 08.07)

December 10, 2007 | 9:16 AM Comments  0 comments

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