Three civil society organisations from Pakistan have won grants worth 40,000 million dollars each from the World Bank's South Asia Development Marketplace (DM) to implement projects aimed at reducing stigma and discrimination associated with HIV and AIDS.
Overall, 26 proposals from across South Asia won grants from a one million-dollar award pool on May 15, WB press release said here. Titled "Tackling HIV and AIDS Stigma and Discrimination: From Insights to Action," the competition was designed to identify innovative ideas on reducing stigma and discrimination associated with HIV and AIDS, it added.
It drew nearly 1,000 applications from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, and through a vigorous assessment process, the applicants were narrowed down to 75 finalists, who showcased their ideas last week in Mumbai.
Creating HIV youth forums at universities, training and empowering vulnerable groups and educating and sensitising journalists about HIV were the winning ideas from Pakistan.
Using DM funds, they would now have upto 18 months to carry out their projects and bring concrete benefits on how to change the attitudes and practices that undermine effective HIV and AIDS programs, the press release added. DM award winner Anser Bhatti from the New Light Aids Control Society in Pakistan aims to reach out to MSMs, which are frequently marginalised in their own communities.
"In this project we will educate and train MSMs and create an enabling environment where they can go freely to HIV testing centres and receive treatment," said Bhatti. India was the most represented country among winners with 12 of 26 winning proposals. Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan followed with three winning projects each.
Two winning proposals came from Sri Lanka. The South Asia Regional Development Marketplace is sponsored by the Government of Norway, the Swedish International Development Co-operation Agency, UNAIDS, Unicef and the WB Group, including the International Financing Corporation.
The Development Marketplace is a competitive grant programme that uses a transparent process to identify and support grassroots initiatives with innovative approaches to solving challenging development issues. The programme has awarded nearly 34 million dollars to roughly 800 small-scale projects over the last seven years, the press release concluded.
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