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Session 3: Middle East and North Africa HIV/AIDS Strategy Launch Watch Video Connection Speed: High Speed Low Speed    Event Title : World Bank World AIDS Day 2005 Date : 12/1/2005 Duration : 88 minutes Language  : English Country/Region : World Keyword :  AIDS  Health, Nutrition and Population   Presenter : Francesca Ayodeji Akala Elie Al Araj Inger Anderson Walid Badawi Sid Ahmed Dib Christiaan  Poortman Michal Rutkowski | Related Material | Recommendations |Related B-SPAN Videos |  DESCRIPTION  On December 1, 2005, in support of World AIDS Day 2005, the World Bank held a week of events sponsored by the Global HIV/AIDS Program and coordinated by the South Asia region. HIV and AIDS are clearly challenges for the Bank’s work in the developing world, and are challenges not easily surmounted. In this presentation of the Middle East and North Africa HIV/AIDS Strategy Launch, held at Bank headquarters, Bank experts laid out and discussed a plan for fighting the disease in this section of the globe. The program was introduced by Inger Anderson, Sector Director for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Social Development at the World Bank, and Michal Rutkowski, also a Sector Director for MENA Health, Education, and Social Protection. Christian Poortman, Bank Vice President for MENA, provided introductory remarks to the presentation, noting that HIV/AIDS numbers for the region are low but should be watched carefully. Francesca Ayodeji Akala, Public Health Specialist at the Bank, presented the strategy in more detail. The strategic framework is based around three goals: improving advocacy, improving information knowledge base, and creating programs to target the highest-risk populations. Panelists then commented on the strategy and added their viewpoints, starting with Sid Ahmed Dib, Executive Director for Afghanistan, Algeria, and Ghana. Dib agreed with the strategy direction of the report, but found shortcomings in the measurement plan, and highlighted the need for rural initiatives and high-quality policies in each country. Walid Badawi, United Nations Development Programme Senior Policy Advisor, also congratulated the authors of the plan and noted specific messages he felt were important. Elie Al Araj, Founder and Director of Soins Infirmiers et Développement Communautaire Association (SIDC), provided reasons that the Bank should act in a relatively low-prevalence region. Questions following the discussion dove further into working within faiths, global initiatives contrasted with regional segmentation, AIDS education in schools, and methods for identifying at-risk groups.  RELATED MATERIALS   World Bank: HIV/AIDS World Bank: The Global HIV/AIDS Program World Bank: HIV/AIDS in Africa—ACTafrica Related World Bank and Other Links: UNAIDS World AIDS Campaign Related B-SPAN Events: Fighting HIV/AIDS Stigma and Discrimination at the Workplace Indigenous Knowledge and Management of HIV/AIDS Cases RELATED B-SPAN EVENTS AIDS (59) Health, Nutrition and Population (114)