AIDS Strategy & Action Plan (ASAP)

ASAP STRATEGY SUPPORT

ASAP - the AIDS Strategy & Action Plan service, was a multi-donor effort hosted by the Global HIV and AIDS program of the World Bank, on behalf of UNAIDS. It was created in 2006 to address the lack of global progress in achieving the Three Ones Principles, particularly on moving to a national strategic framework/strategy that was prioritized and evidence-based.

What Did ASAP Do?

ASAP objectives were to:

i) assist countries to strengthen their national AIDS strategies and operational plans

ii) facilitate the process of moving from project to program support

iii) improve donor alignment, coordination and harmonization within the framework of the three ones and

iv) allow or more differentiated and carefully tailored and prioritized national responses with due attention to efficiency and effectiveness’.  

To achieve these objectives, the program offered over its lifetime a whole range of  services:

- Peer reviews of draft national AIDS strategies and operational plans 

- Targeted technical assistance to countries to strengthen strategic responses to HIV and AIDS

- Capacity building support and,

- Development of tools to assist in the strategic planning process.

Examples of results achieved:

• Since its inception ASAP provided support to over 75 countries, two regional networks and three civil society networks.

• As the program successfully concluded, the multiple lessons learnt from ASAP have helped map out new challenges for intervention, and new objectives for the World Bank Global HIV AIDS Program. The difficult financing environment faced by clients, as well as the implementation pitfalls, called for a renewed strategic support, that the Bank chose to organize around four pillars: Allocative Efficiency; HIV delivery science – what does it take to implement a well-defined HIV service to  scale?; Effectiveness; and the Sustainability of the AIDS response.