HIV / AIDS - Development Market Place 2008

Announcement of Winners

We are pleased to announce the 26 winners of the South Asia Regional Development Marketplace 2008, "Tackling HIV/AIDS Stigma and Discrimination: From Insights to Action". The 26 winners were selected at the Development Marketplace in Mumbai on 15 May 2008 by an international jury of senior develpment experts. The awards were handed out by Ms Shabana Azmi, actress and activist. The peoples choice award was given to Lotus Integrated AIDS Awareness Sangam. We would like to salute all the 75 finalists who presented their ideas and we wish them the best of luck as they continue their efforts to reduce HIV-related stigma and discrimination in South Asia.

- Photos of Winners

Announcement of Finalists

We are pleased to announce the 75 finalistsfor the South Asia Regional Development Marketplace 2008, "Tackling HIV/AIDS Stigma and Discrimination: From Insights to Action". We received close to 1,000 proposals from across the region and we would like to thank all the applicants for their participation in the Development Marketplace and we wish them the best of luck as they continue their efforts to reduce HIV-related stigma and discrimination in South Asia.

What is the Development Marketplace?

The Development Marketplace (DM) is a competitive grant program that identifies and supports small-scale development projects that have the potential to be expanded or replicated. The program operates at a global, regional or country level, and uses a transparent process to support innovations that address development challenges at the community level.

DM competitions are designed to attract ideas from a range of innovators; civil society groups, social entrepreneurs, foundations, academia, private sector corporations, non-governmental organizations, etc. It draws together people and institutions with varied affiliations and objectives to work in partnerships to find innovative development solutions.

What is the South Asia Regional Development Marketplace?

Following the success of country-based Development Marketplaces in India, Pakistan, and Nepal, the World Bank’s South Asia Region and partners are organizing a region-wide Development Marketplace that includes: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka

What is the Theme?

“Tackling HIV AND AIDS Stigma and Discrimination: From Insights to Action”

The objective of the South Asia DM is to identify and fund innovative approaches for how to reduce stigma and discrimination associated with HIV and AIDS in the region. Persistent stigma and discrimination throughout the region:

Severely hamper efforts to prevent new HIV infections, especially among vulnerable groups at high risk (sex workers and their clients, injecting drug users and their partners and men having sex with men),
Contribute to the social rejection of people living with HIV and AIDS, causing personal and economic stress,
Compound people’s fear of HIV and AIDS because of the association with sex, drugs, illness and death,
Affect rural women whose livelihoods and survival are under threat, and
Prevent access to treatment and care of HIV and AIDS, and other services.

Stigma and discrimination have been identified as major obstacles to scaling up HIV prevention services in all South Asian countries and by all national programs, development partners and community-based organizations.

Stigma marginalizes people living with HIV and AIDS (PLWHAs) and contributes to their social isolation and rejection. The discrimination associated with stigma denies vulnerable groups access to HIV testing and preventive services and prevent PLWHAs from access to the treatment services that they need to fight the disease. The impact of stigma for HIV and AIDS is particularly acute for women in South Asia who are often economically, culturally, and socially disadvantaged to begin with.

The South Asia Regional Development Marketplace will support initiatives that use innovative approaches to fight the stigma and discrimination associated with HIV and AIDS. We are looking for efforts that tackle prejudice of HIV and AIDS at the community and/or other levels.

What criteria will be used to assess the proposals?

All finalists will be assessed along the following these Assessment Criteria:

Innovation: The proposal should present non-conventional and/or creative approaches to reducing HIV and AIDS related stigma and discrimination.

Ownership: The proposed activities must be relevant, appropriate, and demonstrate acceptance within the community of beneficiaries, or have a plan for how to obtain and maintain acceptance and ownership by the beneficiaries.

Replicability: The proposal should identify its potential to be replicate its activity by other organizations in other places with similar conditions.

Results: The proposal should demonstrate/quantify very clearly how it will mitigate stigma or discrimination.

South Asia Regional DM Timeline and Key Steps

November 27, 2007 – January 31, 2008: Call for proposals

February 1 – March 16, 2008: Review of proposals

March 17, 2008: Announcement of Finalists
Assessors will select approximately 75 finalists who will be invited to submit a longer proposal and attend the regional Development Marketplace event in Mumbai, on May 15, 2008.

March 17th – April 15th, 2008: Submission of finalists’ proposals
All finalists will be asked to submit a more detailed proposal by April 15th. Finalists will be invited to the 2007 Marketplace and showcase their ideas before an international jury. The World Bank will cover the cost for one representative from each finalist team to attend the event.

May 15th, 2008: South Asia Regional Development Marketplace, Mumbai
An independent jury comprised of government officials and eminent persons in development, academia, civil society, foundations, government, the private sector representatives and other development partners will evaluate each finalist proposal and select approximately 20-25 winners.

The Development Marketplace event will also provide an opportunity for networking; for the finalists to meet with other representatives of the development community and exchange ideas.

May 2008 onwards: Activity Implementation and Results

All the winners will enter into a grant agreement with the World Bank that indicates how and when the award money will be disbursed to them and what results/milestones their projects will deliver.
The activity will be monitored over the following 18 months.
At the end of the 18 months, there will be a gathering of the winners and partners to review lessons learned and to disseminate and discuss the results in February - March 2010.