New World Bank programme to fight AIDS

The World Bank on Tuesday launched a new campaign offering more funds and rapid action to fight HIV/AIDS in Africa, the ‘Wall Street Journal’ said on Tuesday. The article said that the bank’s board of directors was expected to create an initial US $500 million emergency credit line and approve immediate loans for Kenya and Ethiopia. It said that the bank also promised to refill the fund when it ran dry. “What I’m trying to do is get money out there as quickly as I can,” World Bank President James Wolfensohn was quoted as saying. “I honestly don’t think in a crisis as grave as this that money is going to be the problem.”

According to the newspaper, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Zambia and several other nations were likely to secure the bargain-rate loans in the months ahead, with approval time cut to as little as six months, from the usual one or two years. The Bank recently estimated that sub-Saharan Africa needed US $1 billion to US $3 billion a year to combat HIV/AIDS. “What we hope is that we can begin to make a dent in terms of prevention, support, care and treatment, and generally catalyse others to come with us,” World Bank Vice President for Africa Callisto Madavo was quoted as saying.