WASHINGTON, November 21, 2013 – World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim issued the following statement today upon receiving the Prince Mahidol Award:
“I am deeply honored to have been selected as one of the four recipients of the Prince Mahidol Award this year for my past work on HIV/AIDS. I extend my congratulations to the other three recipients: Dr. David Ho, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and Dr. Peter Piot.
The award reflects a turning point in the history of HIV/AIDS when the agenda transformed from one of despair to one of opportunity with the advent of anti-retroviral medicines and the mobilization toward access of life-saving drugs to everyone, no matter their background or economic status.
The World Health Organization’s 3 by 5 effort demonstrated the importance of setting time-bound measurable targets as a stimulus to achieving results more quickly. It is by no means specific to HIV/AIDS and can and should be extended to development more broadly as seen in the new goals of the World Bank Group: ending extreme poverty by 2030 and boosting shared prosperity for the bottom 40 percent of the population in developing countries.
In accepting this award, I want to pay tribute to all the AIDS activists whose brilliance and complete dedication to saving lives helped bring us to this point today, where access to medicine should be given to all and we are striving for an AIDS-free generation.”
