Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu, April 2:

The World Bank has come up with the Allocation By Cost-effectiveness (ABC) model for maximising the prevention of HIV/AIDS."The enormous number of interventions but limited resources create a dilemma, which requires an approach based on impact and costs," said Dariush Akhavan from the World Bank while addressing a briefing here today.

He said that calculating the cost and impact of each intervention, identifying the interventions that prevent the greatest number of infections for the same amount of resources and prioritising resources for these interventions starting with those of greatest impact would prevent the greatest number of new cases of HIV with limited budget."The ABC model is a practical tool as it maximises impact automatically, offers local approach to budget allocation and utilises data from literature and consensus estimated by experts," said Akhavan.

Citing examples from other countries, where the model has been applied, he explained that by transforming the data into impact by budget step, it prioritised the interventions in order of impact.

"However, some criterions like human rights, rights of special groups, estrogenic transmission, vulnerable sub-groups, political constraints and equity and justice many be above the logic of cost and impact," he said.