THE World Bank has approved a budget of almost US$1M for this year to fund the activities of the Guyana HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Project, under its Multi-Country HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Adaptable Programme Lending (APL) to support the Caribbean Regional Strategic Plan of Action for HIV/AIDS.

To this end, some 10 line (non-health) ministries Thursday signed memoranda of understanding governing the funding and implementation of their respective HIV workplace projects, the objective of which is to slow the spread of HIV infection in Guyana, and mitigate the effects of AIDS, through prevention and care activities.

The signing of the agreements, which coincided with the visit of a team of World Bank officials to Guyana, currently conducting their mid-term review of projects previously launched, was at the Health Ministry in Georgetown.

Heading the World Bank team was Dr. Mary Mulusa, also team leader of Guyana’s World Bank Project.

Mulusa, who said the World Bank is firmly committed to helping initiatives aimed at waging effective response to the HIV epidemic, credited Guyana as being a best practice country with an admirable record and strategies for responding to the epidemic.

Phase I of the project which was allocated a budget of US$567,794 and conducted over 2005-2006, saw the participation of the following line ministries: Agriculture; Amerindian Affairs; Culture, Youth and Sport; Education; Home Affairs; Local Government and Regional Development; and Labour, Human Services and Social Security.

The first phase of the project having been completed at the end of 2006, those seven line ministries Thursday joined three new line ministries/public sector entities coming on board for the first time in 2007 to sign the MOU.

The three new ones are Guyana National Newspapers Limited, the Ministry of Housing and Water and the Public Service Ministry.

Additionally, three others have expressed interest in developing programmes within the ambit of the project, said Mr. Patrick Mentore of the Health Sector Development Unit (HSDU) which is tasked with overseeing the project nationally.

Those soon to come on board are the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Foreign Trade and International Cooperation and the Public Works Ministry.

Mentore said it is anticipated that a total of more than US$2M will be spent for the life of Guyana’s HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Project funded by the World Bank.

He said the project supports line ministries to expand initiatives in accordance with priorities in the National Strategic Plan and annual work plans. Initiatives will include activities for their clients as well as their own staff.

Health Minister Dr. Leslie Ramsammy observed that the signing of the MOU and allocation of funds to more line ministries during the time that the World bank officials are in the country, is an indication of the further concretising of the national partnership to fight against HIV.

He said the fight against HIV cannot be won by the health sector alone and stressed that a multi-sectoral partnership is needed.

The battle against HIV, he said, is a battle for survival and insisted that winning in this case, is not a choice, but an imperative.

The minister also cautioned those present that, in the fight against HIV there must be national cohesion and national ownership. He said that while Guyana is very grateful that the World Bank is on its side offering assistance, it must be appreciated that the bank “cannot win the fight for us”.

“We must be willing to take the fight against HIV and to accept that with, or without international partners, we must win.”

In 2003, the World Bank approved the Multi-Country HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control APL to support the Caribbean Regional Strategic Plan of Action for HIV/AIDS. Under this programme, support is provided to National HIV/AIDS Strategic Plans of individual countries, which are based on the Caribbean Regional Strategic Plan. Guyana is supported through the Guyana HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Project.

The project supports activities focusing on Prevention of HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) through training, education and behaviour communication, condom distribution, information dissemination, treatment and care for the infected and their affected families; workplace policy formulation, among others.

Additionally, it focuses on the external clients of the respective ministries which include youth, in and out of school (including street children), orphans and vulnerable children, parents/teachers and other educators, trade unions, women’s group and others.

The institutional structures which are in place to manage the sub-projects, include a ministerial HIV/AIDS committee chaired by the minister or his/her designate, who may be a senior official such as the Permanent Secretary, or Director. The committee’s function is to co-ordinate the ministry’s programme and perform the follow-up and necessary evaluation activities within the ministry.

The ministerial committee also oversees a focal point or coordinator, who is responsible for expediting the coordination of the ministry’s response. Ministries are expected to take advantage of their existing departments and divisions already in place, to manage efforts in mainstreaming implementation of HIV/AIDS activities.