FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Elizabeth Ashbourne,
AIDS Campaign Team for Africa, World Bank
Telephone: (202) 458-5247
Email:

June 18, 2004

BLANTYRE , MALAWI – Participants at the recently concluded Private Sector Mobilization Sub-regional Forum on HIV/AIDS have urged increased business involvement in the fight against HIV/AIDS. The forum was hosted by the Malawi Business Coalition against HIV/AIDS in Blantyre, Malawi from June 14 to 18, 2004, and jointly sponsored by the World Bank, the Global Health Initiative (World Economic Forum), UNAIDS and the Corporate Council on Africa.

The Malawi Forum is the third sub-regional meeting following the earlier Private Sector Forums in Zambia , Indonesia and Namibia in 2003. Countries represented included: Ethiopia, the Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritania, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda.

The World Bank, the Global Health Initiative (WEF) and UNAIDS identify this series of meetings as valuable opportunities for leaders from national business coalitions and associations against HIV/AIDS, national AIDS commissions, the international donor community and the public and private sectors to work together to strengthen the private sector component in all national strategies on HIV/AIDS.

The primary objective of the Malawi meeting was to build the capacity of national business coalitions against HIV/AIDS by providing the tools to support and implement action plans and work programs . Participants had the opportunity to develop country specific plans and identify strategies and partnerships aimed at facilitating implementation. Specific areas covered included: capacity building for national business coalitions against HIV/AIDS; the use of marketing to address AIDS-related stigma; fundraising techniques; and project monitoring and evaluation.

The participants found the monitoring and evaluation presentation and skills-building exercise especially useful. The leader of the session, Mareleze Gorgens, highlighted the importance of effective monitoring and evaluation systems within HIV/AIDS workplace programs. “In order to sustain trust and cooperation among partners in the fight against HIV/AIDS, an effective method to monitor progress must be adapted.”

Each country delegation left the meeting with comprehensive national action plans designed to strengthen private sector involvement in national AIDS strategies. Elizabeth Ashbourne, Senior Coordinator for Private Sector Partnerships, at the World Bank’s AIDS Campaign Team for Africa, ACTafrica, noted, “This was an excellent opportunity to work not only with the international donor community but to have the input of all participating countries to make the Forum relevant to the entire continent.”

Elizabeth Ashbourne directs the private sector component of the World Bank ACTafrica team. This team supports the implementation of the Multi-Country AIDS Program (MAP), works to mainstream HIV/AIDS into all sectors of the Bank's work, supports Bank country teams in addressing HIV/AIDS, builds HIV/AIDS impact assessment into existing assessement structures, and strengthens the Bank's partnership with UNAIDS and other key agencies, non-governmental organizations and donors.