World Bank Approves a New HIV/AIDS Project in Benin

WASHINGTON, April 5, 2007 – The World Bank Board of Executive Directors today approved a credit to the Republic of Benin for a Second Multisectoral HIV/AIDS Project (PMLS-2). This new project, at a total cost of USD 35 million, will consolidate progress made under the preceding project, which was implemented from 2002 to 2006 at a cost of USD 23 million.

The PMLS-2 will help to: (i) enhance and expand the accessibility and utilization of preventive services by vulnerable groups (e.g., women, young people, etc.) and by high-risk groups such as sex workers; (ii) enhance the accessibility and utilization of treatment and care services by those infected and/or affected by HIV/AIDS, and especially by persons living with HIV/AIDS, orphans, and vulnerable children; and (iii) consolidate the coordination, management and monitoring/evaluation of the national response to HIV/AIDS, in order to ensure its sustainability.

The PMLS-2 is designed to be implemented over a four-year period, mainly in the form of sub-projects initiated by civil society organizations and through substantial support to activities under the National Program for Control of HIV/AIDS (PNLS), as an adjunct to financing from the Global Fund (5th Round). The Project has three main components:

1. A social mobilization component, which will finance HIV/AIDS prevention activities, particularly in the area of communication aimed at behavioral change;

2. Access to treatment and care, which will enhance access by infected and affected persons to services including screening, treatment with anti-retroviral drugs, treatment of opportunistic infections, and prevention of mother-to-child transmission;

3. Coordination, management, monitoring and evaluation: project funds will provide the National HIV/AIDS Committee (CNLS) with adequate resources to play an effective coordinating role in HIVAIDS prevention and to implement the unified national monitoring and evaluation system.

For more information on the World Bank’s work in Benin, go to: http://www.banquemondiale.org/benin