African Development Forum 2000 AIDS: Address by Mr Rene Bonnel, world bank ACT Africa principal economist

Abstract

Address by Mr Rene Bonnel, World Bank ACT Africa Principal Economist at the African Development Forum 2000 AIDS: The Greatest Leadership Challenge. Mr. Bonnel, on his remarks outlined that, Simply stated the HIV/AIDS epidemics has become a key factor of economic and social stagnation. This is described in the background paper "HIV/AIDS and Economic Development in Sub-Saharan Africa" that was distributed to the participants. It is because of these various sectoral effects that HIV/AIDS entails such dramatic impact on welfare. What we are likely to see is increased poverty. While high-income households can weather the consequences of a disease like AIDS, poor households cannot. They are most vulnerable to long-lasting diseases like HIV/AIDS. We have run out of analogues for AIDS. The most common parallel one hears is to the bubonic plague of the 14th century or the influenza of the beginning of the 20th century. But HIV is more insidious, more invisible, and far more enduring. This plague is truly without precedent.