ADF grants US $8.3 million to help region fight HIV/AIDS

The African Development Fund (ADF) has approved a US $8.3-million grant to finance a project in support of countries bordering the Congo, Oubangi and Chari rivers to control HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, the African Development Bank (ADB) reported on Thursday. It said the objective of the project was to strengthen regional integration on HIV/AIDS control among the countries - namely, Republic of Congo (ROC), Central Africa Republic (CAR), Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Chad. "These countries are confronted by important transborder movements of their populations and need to coordinate and harmonize their strategies to fight HIV/AIDS," an ADB communique said. "The project's activities will complement national AIDS control action plans by dealing with mobile and migrant populations along the rivers who are often left out by national control strategies." Thirty-eight sites have been identified to host the project's activities, including 11 in ROC, 10 in CAR, 12 in DRC and five in Chad. "Most sites are found in border areas and as such, they are inevitable transit points of the migration movements between the countries," ADB said. "The project sites are, for the most part, far from the capital cities and accessibility by road is impossible or very difficult, at best." ADB recalled that sub-Saharan Africa was the area of the world most affected by HIV/AIDS, as it accounted for 29.4 million people living with the disease, representing 70 percent of all known cases. About 3.5 million cases of new infections occurred in the region in 2002, and the average prevalence rate of HIV in the four countries involved in the initiative is 11 percent among the sexually active segment of the population. The project, whose total cost is estimated at $9.12 million, is co-financed by the ADF, the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the governments of the four member countries of the initiative. ADF said its grant would cover 92 percent of the total amount of the project.