Caribbean countries have been awarded over $13 million by the World Bank to support their ongoing HIV/AIDS programmes. St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines will become the latest Caribbean countries to benefit from the World Bank's $155 million HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Programme. St Vincent is set to receive $7 million to help tackle the problem. Caroline Anstey, the World Bank's Director for the Caribbean said: "This project will help to provide anti-retroviral drugs to those who need them and strengthen the role of civil society, the private and government to curb the HIV/AIDS epidemic in St. Vincent and the Grenadines." As well as increasing the participation of wider society in the fight against HIV/AIDS, the money is intended to strengthen the government’s capacity for coordination, monitoring and improve prevention and treatment programmes. The World Bank said the HIV/AIDS epidemic in St Vincent is fuelled by a complex set of social, economic, cultural, legal and physiological factors, including gender inequality, and stigma and discrimination. It said the country is susceptible to further spread of the HIV/AIDS virus due to several underlying social factors such as the behaviour of at-risk people. Strategic plan St. Lucia will also benefit from the fund, receiving US$6.4 million to reduce infections, provide treatment for people living with HIV/AIDS, and strengthen institutional capacity for HIV/AIDS prevention and control activities. "Financing from this project will scale-up St Lucia's National HIV/AIDS Strategic Plan to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS, and provide treatment and care for people living with the disease," Ms Anstey said. St. Lucia's National HIV/AIDS Strategic Plan 2003-2008, focuses on providing comprehensive HIV/AIDS care for all people living with HIV/AIDS; prevention; improving treatment and education; and a variety of community and civil society initiatives. Added to this all government ministries will be expected to identify and implement HIV/AIDS programmes for the population groups that they are responsible for. The World Bank programme has also made financing available to Barbados (2001), The Dominican Republic (2001), Jamaica (2002), Grenada (2002), St Kitts and Nevis (2003), Trinidad and Tobago (2003), Pan Caribbean Partnership Against HIV/AIDS (2004) and Guyana (2004). SOURCE: BBCCARIBBEAN.COM