The World Bank uses its unique perspective and expertise to enhance the global challenge to the epidemic and helps countries to provide HIV prevention, care and treatment services by offering financing, specialized technical support and knowledge gleaned over decades. It also helps to alleviate the social and economic consequences experienced by affected communities and, in accordance with its Division of Labour mandate, stresses the importance of social protection as a vital facet of a successful response to HIV.
In terms of tackling the sexual transmission of the virus, the World Bank co-leads the push to gather evidence for HIV prevention, setting better priorities and using scientific approaches to increase the impact of prevention programmes.
Working with key national stakeholders, it assists countries in exploring how better to develop and implement high-quality HIV services that are accessible to those who need them and to reach the coverage targets expressed in the national strategic plans.
When a government asks the World Bank to intervene to help strengthen a national AIDS response (as part of a country partnership strategy), it can offer grants, credits and/or loans for HIV programmes. These can either be standalone projects or, more usually, integrated within broader health sector financing or financing for other social sectors, such as for transport, infrastructure and urban development, in which the Bank works with partners to bolster evidenceinformed interventions.
There is now a greater emphasis on doing “better for less” to help countries to utilize the available resources wisely and well, rendering their response to AIDS better designed and implemented in a way that maximizes resource allocation and service delivery. In order to do this, the Bank relies on a number of measures, which include providing evidence for strategic planning and undertaking studies that analyse efficiency, effectiveness, financing and sustainability.
Additionally, the World Bank is committed to scaling up programmes aimed at eliminating mother-to-child transmission of HIV, thus accelerating progress on the Millennium Development Goals relating to child and maternal health.
The Bank will redouble its efforts to work with countries to reach the best evidence-informed decisions about financing priorities so that comprehensive and multisectoral AIDS responses equipped to meet the needs of diverse populations make a real difference on the ground.
Additional information is available here.