The Changing HIV/AIDS Landscape : Selected Papers for the World Bank's Agenda for Action in Africa, 2007-2011

Abstract

The HIV/AIDS pandemic in Sub-Saharan
 Africa remains a long-term development challenge for the
 region. Nearly 12 million African children have been
 orphaned as a result of the disease, and 22.5 million people
 in Africa 61 percent of them women live with HIV. The
 hyperepidemics in Southern Africa have diluted poverty
 reduction efforts and in several countries substantially
 reduced life expectancy. The critical need to address this
 development problem is reflected in the sixth Millennium
 Development Goal (MDG), which seeks to halt and begin to
 reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS by 2015 and to make access to
 treatment for HIV/AIDS universal for all those who need it
 by 2010. With Sub-Saharan Africa representing nearly
 two-thirds of those living with HIV globally, and the fact
 that human development indicators of several countries in
 the region lag far behind the rest of the world, prospects
 for Sub-Saharan Africa reaching any of the MDG goals will
 require a sustained response to HIV/AIDS. Reversing the
 spread of HIV/AIDS is closely linked to combating other
 major diseases referenced in sixth MDG, promoting gender
 equality (MDG 3), reducing child mortality (MDG 4) and
 improving maternal health (MDG 5).