U.S. Agency for International Development launches HIV/AIDS Project in Maharashtra

June 6, 2001

NEW DELHI - Mr. Walter North, Director of the U.S. Agency for International Development in India,(USAID), Mr. Prasad Rao, Additional Secretary, Director of NACO (National AIDS Control Organization, GOI Ministry of Health, and Secretary Houssain, Secretary Public Health, State of Maharashtra signed the AVERT tripartite agreement today to enable USAID, through its HIV/AIDS prevention program, to conduct a $41.5 million project in the State of Maharashtra. The program called the AVERT project will be USAID's largest HIV/AIDS prevention project in the world.

Currently, Maharashtra is among the six highest HIV/AIDS prevalence states in India. The project will focus on targeted interventions for high risk groups as well as broader based prevention messages for the general population and capacity building among state and local HIV/AIDS prevention groups. The project intends to carry out its activities in a holistic manner that cuts across the many sectors affected by HIV/AIDS prevention.

This is an extremely important project for Indo-US cooperation. Its design uses global standard in AIDS prevention by taking into account the experiences of other projects in Tamil Nadu and sub-Saharan Africa. This agreement formalizes the roles and responsibilities of the primary stakeholders as well as marks the commencement of the implementation phase of this project.