UNAIDS and German Development Bank Sign Key Agreement to Tackle
AIDS
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Geneva, 22 July 2004 - Efforts to combat HIV in Central America
and the Caribbean received a major boost today. The Joint United
Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) and the German Develop-
ment Bank (KfW) http://www.kfw.de/EN/ signed a cooperation
agreement to encourage HIV prevention and reduce infection in
these severely affected regions. This signing strengthens the
already extensive collaboration between UNAIDS and KfW on AIDS
programming.
Under this agreement, the German government, through KfW will
strengthen AIDS prevention efforts by promoting the availability
of condoms at an affordable price, as well as educational and
advertising campaigns for behaviour change. To that end, KfW has
committed more than 13 million Euros to support countries in
Central America and the Caribbean. Honduras, El Salvador and
Guatemala will be the first countries to benefit from the 7.6
million Euros to be made available in Central America. In the
Caribbean, KfW funds amounting to 6 million Euros will benefit
social marketing campaigns in the Dominican Republic, Haiti,
Guyana and possibly Cuba.
�It is vital to get a steady supply of good quality condoms and
information to the people of Central America and the Caribbean,�
said Dr Peter Piot, Executive Director of UNAIDS, who signed to-
day�s cooperation framework. �Such access is crucial for effec-
tive HIV prevention. We can really make a dramatic difference,�
he added.
UNAIDS will play a role in providing strategic information and
technical guidance for the regional initiatives and will facili-
tate coordination among various stakeholders. UNAIDS will chair
a multi-partner Consultative Group in both Central America and
the Caribbean which will harmonize efforts among the partners
involved in the implementation of the prevention activities.
�Jointly with UNAIDS, the German Development Bank aims to over-
come fragmentation and bureaucratic burden in the fight against
HIV/AIDS without compromising on efficiency and impact.� said
Dr. Hanns-Peter Neuhoff, Senior Vice President of KfW. He added:
�With German government grants, we and our regional partners
have been strongly supported by UNAIDS in developing coordina-
tion and monitoring mechanisms.�
Central America and the Caribbean have been hard hit by the AIDS
epidemic. HIV prevalence in the Caribbean is second only to sub-
Saharan Africa. In Haiti, for example, HIV prevalence rates are
5.6%, affecting mostly young people. In Central America the epi-
demic has been increasing steadily and many countries now face
serious epidemics among the most vulnerable populations with HIV
rates of more than 10% among sex workers and men who have sex
with men in countries like Honduras.
Given the real added value that such strategic partnerships can
bring to tackling HIV, both UNAIDS and the German Development
Bank are exploring similar collaboration in future programmes to
strengthen prevention in other highly affected regions, such as
West and Central Africa.