ADB To Tackle HIV AIDS On The Roads in North East

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Indian North Eastern States Receive Aid From ADB To Tackle HIV AIDS On The Roads

5 February, 2010 .The northeastern Indian states of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram,

Manipur and Nagaland will receive Asian Development Bank (ADB) support to

address the social and health issues associated with road improvement.

The ation Fund for Fighting HIV/AIDS in Asia and the Pacific, financed by

the Government of Sweden and administered by ADB, is providing a $1.47 million

technical assistance grant to carry out assessment work and capacity development

programs in key agencies to help reduce the incidence of infections in areas

earmarked for major road projects.

" The assistance will help provide stronger service delivery capabilities for HIV

prevention in the five states, and will complement the work of the National AIDS

Control Organization, " said Francesco Tornieri, Social Development Specialist in

ADB's South Asia Department.

New and upgraded roads may result in broad benefits to communities, particularly

those in remote areas, but studies show they can also be a conduit for the

spread of sexually transmitted infections. In the northeast of India, HIV

prevalence is higher than in many other parts of the country, is increasingly

driven by heterosexual transmission, and poses a major threat to poor rural

women who lack equal access to health and nutrition services, and are less

involved in social and political decision making than men.

The technical assistance will develop a project baseline and monitoring and

evaluation system to provide information on the interaction between HIV

transmission, road construction and high-risk behavior. It will roll out HIV

training and skills transfer programs, targeting the private sector, health

service providers and condom distributors, and will build up the HIV awareness

capacity of nongovernment organizations, community-based organizations, people

living with HIV, and trade unions. It will also complement ongoing direct

interventions by state agencies to prevent HIV, targeting construction workers

in campsites, and communities directly affected by infrastructure work.

Alternative livelihood and self-employment training initiatives aimed at

promoting the economic empowerment of people living with HIV - particularly

widows, destitute single mothers, female heads of households, and sex workers -

may also be supported.

The National AIDS Control Organization is the executing agency for the technical

assistance which will run from February 2010 until 2013.

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