Addressing HIV or AIDS in South Caucasus transport projects

Transport has been identified as a sector that is particularly vulnerable to the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) epidemic. For this reason, explicit provisions for HIV prevention and awareness training are now embedded in the World Bank standard bidding documents for procurement of works in excess of United States (U.S.) 10 million dollars. These provisions were developed for countries with high national prevalence rates for HIV or AIDS. However, countries of Europe and Central Asia (ECA) have low prevalence rates of 1 percent or below, even in the worst affected countries of the region such as Ukraine, Russian Federation, Belarus, and Moldova. Using funds from the transport and HIV or AIDS incentive trust fund supported by the Global AIDS Program (GHAP), a study was undertaken on the viability of developing a risk-based approach for HIV or AIDS interventions to be applied in low prevalence countries. This note summarizes the findings of the work and presents an approach for addressing HIV or AIDS issues in transport projects in the South Caucasus.