Press Release

OPEC Fund extends grants worth US$4.8 million

13/2006 March 16, 2006, Vienna, Austria
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The OPEC Fund for International Development today signed four grant agreements, totaling US$4.8 million, with the International Labor Organization (ILO), the King Hussein Cancer Foundation, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

The US$2 million grant will co-finance a joint OPEC Fund/ILO partnership in a Multiregional Project on HIV/AIDS Workplace Policies and Programs, which will be carried out in 12 selected countries in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. The aim of the project is to sensitize government ministries, workers’ and employers’ organizations and associated civil society organizations to HIV/AIDS as a workplace issue.

A grant of US$2 million will co-finance a joint OPEC Fund/UNODC partnership on Effective HIV/AIDS Prevention and Care among Vulnerable Groups in Central Asia. The initiative will respond directly to the needs of governments in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan to establish a comprehensive, large-scale prevention and care system to manage and control the increasing cases of HIV/AIDS among intravenous drug users and in prison settings. Both the ILO and UNODC grants will be drawn from the Fund’s Special Account for HIV/AIDS.

A US$400,000 grant will support a project of the King Hussein Cancer Foundation, Sustaining Excellence in Cancer Care in Jordan and the Middle East. Proceeds will be used to help purchase the latest treatment and diagnostic equipment for the King Hussein Cancer Center located in the Jordanian capital Amman. The financing will help the Center meet its budget requirements for the years 2006-07 for equipping its multidisciplinary departments.

Another grant for US$400,000 will help finance the WHO project Strengthening National Health Systems in Least Developed Arab Countries; namely, Djibouti, the Sudan and Yemen. Among many others, activities will include integrating macroeconomics-related issues within national health strategies; increasing resource allocations to the health sector by carrying out workshops and seminars; initiating capacity-building measures among health care providers and developing and disseminating information materials.

The agreements were signed, on behalf of the OPEC Fund, by Mr. Suleiman J. Al-Herbish, Director-General, and by HRH Princess Ghida Talal, Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of the King Hussein Cancer Foundation; Dr. Assane Diop, Executive Director of the Social Protection Sector, ILO; Dr. Kazem Behbehani, WHO Envoy, and by Dr. Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director, UNODC .