Osotimehin seeks regional unity against AIDS

November 29, 2006 :: Vanguard

The need to pay more attention to the HIV and AIDS situation across the Abidjan-Lagos Transport Corridor has been re-emphasised as a way of stemming the tide of the pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa. Making the call recently, President of the Governing Board (PGB) of the Abidja-Lagos Corridor Organisation, (ALCO) Prof. Babatunde Osotimehin appealed to member countries to be more serious on the issue of counterpart funding, so as to make a success of the initiative. His words: “It is indeed imperative for all member countries to ensure that they participate actively in the operations of this project to enable us achieve the desired result.While I want to formally thank UNAIDS and World Bank for their support to this project a better way of demonstrating that is by paying the desired attention to the project with a view to improving on its performance.” The Abidjan–Lagos corridor Organisation was established in 2003 as a major outcome of a convention signed by the presidents of the five member states, agreeing to form a regional organisation for the control of HIV/AIDS in the border towns between the countries and the transport corridor. The five-member Board comprising representatives of Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin and Nigeria, met to review the progress of the project under the chairmanship Osotimehin who recalled that the funding provision for the project by the World Bank will come to an end in July 2007, hence there was the need to identify other sources of funding to sustain the good work and achievement of the project. A committee was constituted for resources mobilisation in this regard. Announcing that it was in view of achievements of the organisation, that the Global Fund for HIV and AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, awarded the Corridor Organisation a $45,000,000 grant to be spread over five years. Amongs others, the meeting, resolved that a request be made to the World Bank to extend its support for the project by at least six months. A committee was also inaugurated to work out modalities of satisfying all the requirements of the Global Fund to enable the project access the grant