World Bank and partners give $850 million for AIDS orphans

The World Bank, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and UNAIDS have announced that existing efforts and resources will fall short in dealing with the spiralling crisis of orphans and other children left vulnerable by HIV/AIDS in Africa. The agencies called for immediate and unparalleled political commitment to raise the financial and human resources required, and the need for a pan-African plan of action if the lives of close to 11 million children are to be safeguarded. A set of operational guidelines for scaling up responses was launched at the recent 13th International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa. Richard Seifman, the World Bank Senior Advisor on the AIDS Campaign Team for Africa, said: "Through the Multi-Country HIV/AIDS Programme for Africa (MAP), the World Bank and its partners have already availed US $850 million to twenty-four African countries to scale up their national HIV/AIDS efforts and to support sub-regional HIV/AIDS initiatives."