afrol News, 23 July - The National HIV/AIDS Control Plan for Rwanda has been financed. The plan is to prevent the further spread of AIDS in Rwanda, where an estimated half million persons already have been infected with the HIV virus.

The African Development Fund (ADF) today announced it had approved a grant of US$ 2.8 million, to finance the implementation support project of the national multi-sector HIV/AIDS control plan in Rwanda.

The objective of the project is to enhance the institutional capacities of the structures co-ordinating and implementing the National Multi-sectoral Plan, namely the National HIV/AIDS Control Commission, the National Sectoral Committees, the non-governmental organisations, community associations and religious organisations.

- The achievement of this objective will contribute to the efforts made by the government to improve the health condition of the population and to slow down the spread of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, ADF says in a press release. The project activities comprise technical assistance, training, impact studies, provision of equipment, logistics.

The project addresses the concerns of the Rwandan authorities to support the implementation of the National Multi-sectoral Plan (2002-2006) and to improve capacities to co-ordinate and monitor HIV/AIDS Control activities.

According to the data published in the recent world report on the epidemic (UNAIDS, June 2002), an estimated 500,000 persons live with HIV/AIDS in Rwanda: 430,000 adults aged 15 to 49, including 250,000 women, representing 58 percent of the infected.

According to the same report, the seroprevalence rate of women going for prenatal consultations (PNC) is 23 percent in the urban area and 7 percent in the rural area.

The biological determining factors of the epidemic are said to be age (notably youths aged 15 to 25) and sex, with a higher vulnerability for women.

The Rwandan government's National Multi-sectoral HIV/AIDS Control Plan (2002-2006) organises the fight against AIDS according to a multi-sectoral, decentralised, multi-disciplinary and community approach. Its global objective is to improve the health and social condition of the populations.

The total project cost net of taxes and customs duties is estimated at US$ 2.92 million, of which US$ 850,858 in foreign exchange, i.e. 29 percent and US$ 2.08 million in local currency, representing 71 percent of the entire project cost.

The project will be jointly financed by ADF and the Rwandan government. The total amount of ADF contribution represents 95 percent of the total project cost and covers 100 percent of the foreign exchange costs and 93 percent of the local currency costs. These resources will be used to finance a part of all the project components including operating expenses.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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