UNAIDS, World Bank Press Release - December 9, 2003

In announcing the winners of the 2003 Development Marketplace (DM) Global Competition, James Wolfensohn, President of the World Bank, said the quality and commitment of the different project teams showed "development at its best."

"At a time when we are in a race to achieve the Millennium Development Goals- and achieve a new balance between rich and poor nations-the need for creative ideas and uncommon partnerships is ever greater," said World Bank President, James Wolfensohn. "This gathering of non-governmental organizations, academics, development professionals, private companies, and individuals collectively demonstrate the best of development. This assembly reminds us that the world can indeed come together to solve difficult problems and provide hope and optimism for us all during these challenging times."

Four projects will be funded for innovative HIV/AIDS ideas globally, which doubles the number of HIV/AIDS-related projects supported compared to previous competitions. This year's winning projects included the following innovative approaches:

-- EMPREGAR: Training and Job Market Insertion for Adolescent AIDS Orphans in Bahia (Brazil): The project aims to empower 120 poor, adolescent AIDS orphans by facilitating their successful entry into steady, legal employment in Salvador, Brazil. The project is innovative in that it aims to break this poverty cycle. EMPREGAR will ensure that these young people have the confidence and skills necessary to enter into a stable and productive adult life. Since hiring adolescent apprentices is technically illegal in Salvador, IBCM will act as an intermediary between apprentice and employer. The project is specifically designed to stimulate greater involvement in school and improve academic performance. Total funding for this project is more than US$124,000.

-- Campaign Against HIV/AIDS on electronic media (Ethiopia): The project's aim is to use the media, particularly the radio, to fight the spread of HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia. This project is designed to extend the popular HIV/AIDS program's reach to tens of millions of Ethiopian listeners by broadcasting it on a short wave radio frequency, which is accessible to most Ethiopians, even those living in rural areas. Pro Pride and Action Aid Ethiopia believe that effective use of radio and especially this popular program can make a huge difference in fighting the deadly epidemic nationwide. Total funding for this project is $90,000.

-- HIV Awareness Project of the Deaf (Kenya): The project aims to reduce the transmission of HIV in Kenya's deaf community by developing a peereducator program that teaches HIV prevention in sign language. The development of a peer-educator system for HIV prevention and support, which includes a curriculum and training manuals for master educators and peer educators, will provide a model for deaf communities around the world. The use of sign language and peer educators to promote HIV/AIDS awareness is a novel approach to empowering the deaf community in Kenya. New visual aids and a larger vocabulary in Kenyan sign language will be developed to better address the needs of deaf adults and children. Total funding for this project is more than US$86,000.

-- Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) of HIV Infection Grass-roots Intervention in Rural Areas (Romania): The project's aim is to prevent HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases from being passed from mother to unborn child by equipping doctors with the training, information and technology they need to provide prenatal care to women. Twenty-four family doctors and nurses from four rural counties will be trained on how to prevent the transmission of HIV from mother to child. This project will have an exponential reach, as an additional 10,000 family doctors will benefit from elearning modules. As a result, some 6,000 women from twelve rural districts will receive better prenatal care, will be informed on ways to prevent HIV and sexually transmitted diseases, and will be counseled on voluntary testing. The project is innovative because of its grassroots approach, and because it invests in new target groups: women living in rural areas and family doctors. Total funding for this project is nearly US$160,000.

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) helped support these programs with a US$100,000 grant and a new alliance with the World Bank's Development Marketplace and its Global HIV/AIDS Programme (GHAP) to fund innovative ways to fight HIV/AIDS around the world. The UNAIDS grant was added to a pool of prize money, which the Development Marketplace awards each year to NGOs, community groups, and others which propose the most creative ideas for improving development at the grassroots level. Development Marketplace is a World Bank programme that promotes innovative development ideas through early stage seed funding.

As a match to the UNAIDS contribution, the World Bank's own GHAP contributed US$100,000 to this year's global competition and an additional US$260,000 came from other Bank sources, resulting in a total of over US$400,000 for innovative HIV/AIDS projects globally.

This year marks the first time that an organization outside the World Bank Group has helped to finance the competition, greatly increasing the amount of funds available to NGOs to combat HIV/AIDS. Fifteen Country-level Development Marketplace events have in the past attracted over US$1 million in support from outside agencies, and UNAIDS' commitment continues this trend.

"The AIDS epidemic is worsening and we need innovative mechanisms like the Development Marketplace to support communities that are in the frontline in combating AIDS." said Dr Peter Piot, Executive Director of UNAIDS. "It is vital that we continue invest in both prevention and treatment - the two pillars of a comprehensive AIDS strategy - if we are to have a realistic chance of reversing the spread of this epidemic."

The Development Marketplace, through its past global and country-level innovation competitions, has already assembled a portfolio of successful innovative projects to combat HIV/AIDS in South Asia, Eastern Europe, and Africa. For example, past competitions have funded projects that combine HIV/AIDS awareness with literacy training in Nepal, and projects that work with mining companies in Southern Africa to provide home-based care to HIV-positive workers who have been retrenched from the mines.

"After funding winning projects in the Ethiopia/Sudan and Belarus/Moldova/Ukraine country-level Development Marketplace, and seeing first hand the impact that these competitions can have on the ground, I was convinced that having a separate award for HIV/AIDS for small-scale, creative ideas will really help us in the fight against HIV/AIDS," said Debrework Zewdie, Director, Global HIV/AIDS Program at the World Bank.

The Development Marketplace (DM) was launched as a recognition that solutions to development challenges can have small beginnings, and are often found by those living closest to local problems. The 47 winning project teams from 27 diverse countries will all share a portion of the more than US$6.5 million total DM award pool. This grant money will help each project team turn its innovative project ideas into real programs focused on reducing world poverty.

John Wilton, World Bank Vice President for Strategy, Finance, and Risk Management, who oversees the Development Marketplace said, "The Development Marketplace is a way of providing seed capital to people at the grassroots level. It gives us a way of working with people who work on development without going through government and line ministries, and we can directly work with them."

Wilton went on to say that this year's award pool is financed not only by the World Bank, but also by a variety of partners in the development community. Funding partners of the 2003 Marketplace include the World Bank, IFC, UNAIDS, the Global Environment Facility, Microsoft, and USAID. By having these new funding partners, the 2003 Development Marketplace is able to provide seed funding to many more really innovative projects that have promising approaches to teach the development community at large.

This year's competition finalists were selected from more than 2,700 applications and represent new approaches in different fields, including biodiversity conservation, HIV/AIDS prevention, education, small and medium enterprise (SME) development, rural development, health, energy, and more.

About UNAIDS

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) is an innovative joint venture of the United Nations family that brings together the efforts and resources of eight United Nations system organizations (UNICEF, UNDP, UNFPA, UNODC, ILO, UNESCO, WHO and the World Bank). As the main advocate for global action on HIV/AIDS, UNAIDS leads, strengthens and supports an expanded response aimed at preventing the transmission of HIV, providing care and support, reducing the vulnerability of individuals and communities to HIV/AIDS, and alleviating the impact of the epidemic.

For more information on UNAIDS, visit www.unaids.org

About Development Marketplace (DM)

The Development Marketplace is a World Bank programme that promotes innovative development ideas through early stage seed funding. It links a wide range of social entrepreneurs with ideas for fighting poverty to partners with resources able to help implement their vision. The DM's goal is to create a marketplace of ideas, talent, and resources that address the challenges of economic growth and poverty alleviation.

Since 1998, Development Marketplace has funded almost 380 innovative projects in 60 countries, with investments of over $22 million. Recognizing these accomplishments, the November 2002 issue of Harvard Business Review described Development Marketplace as "Best Practice" in innovation. For more information please go to www.developmentmarketplace.org

About the Global HIV/AIDS Programme (GHAP)

The Global HIV/AIDS Programme was created in 2002 to support the World Bank's efforts to address the HIV/AIDS pandemic from a cross-sectoral perspective. The programme offers global learning and knowledge sharing on approaches and best practices to addressing HIV/AIDS. One of the key functions of the Global HIV/AIDS Programme is to lead the monitoring and evaluation efforts of UNAIDS partners at country level. The Global HIV/AIDS Programme supports the World Bank in its efforts to mainstream HIV/AIDS into all sectors.

For more information please go to www.worldbank.org/aids

For more information, please contact Anne Winter, UNAIDS, Geneva, (+41 22) 791 4577, Development Marketplace û Cynthia Gears (202) 458-2680, cgears@worldbank.org ; or World Bank, Stevan Jackson (202) 458-5054, Sjackson@worldbank.org

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