The Regional Rusumo Falls Hydroelectric Project, which has a total cost of $468 million and an eventual 80 megawatt generation capacity, will boost reliable power supply to the electricity grids of the three countries, reduce electricity costs and promote renewable power.

It will also spur job-led economic development and pave the way for more dynamic regional cooperation, peace and stability among the countries of the Nile Equatorial Lakes (NEL) sub-region in east Africa, the Bank stated in a news release.

“This landmark project will have transformational impact, bringing lower-cost energy to homes, businesses, and clinics in Burundi, Rwanda and Tanzania,” says Colin Bruce, Director, Strategy, Operations and Regional Integration.

“By connecting grids, people and environmentally sensitive solutions, the project will help to catalyze growth and to encourage peace and stability in the sub-region.”

The project is the first operation under the World Bank Group Great Lakes Regional Initiative, which was inaugurated during the visit by Ban and World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim in May.

The joint visit was in support of a UN-brokered peace agreement signed earlier this year aimed at ending the cycles of conflict and crisis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and to promote economic development in the region.

In 2011, the Bank helped to provide electricity to an additional 1.4 million people in African countries; construct and repair some 6,640 kilometres of roads; and improved water supplies for more than 8 million people.

“The Rusumo Falls Hydroelectric Project takes a regional approach to tackling sub-Saharan Africa’s power crisis, providing low-cost, clean, renewable energy to people in Burundi, Rwanda and Tanzania,” says Jamal Saghir, World Bank Director for Sustainable Development in the Africa Region.

“The new power plant signals the Bank’s commitment to keeping the lights on across the African continent, necessary for achieving growth, ending poverty and boosting shared prosperity in the region.”

“It is decision time for La Francophonie,” Michel Sidibé, the Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS), told a news conference in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where the report was released at a summit meeting of the 56-member state International Organization of La Francophonie (IOF), a grouping of one of the biggest linguistic zones in the world.

“While out actions so far are laudable, they will not take us to the finish line. We must redouble our efforts for the AIDS response and act decisively,” Sidibé said, stressing that an additional $1.4 billion in international aid, a 160 per cent increase over current funding levels, will be needed annually by 2015 to fill the gap, together with a $120 million increase by the countries themselves.

“The international community must meet its commitments for Francophone Africa, and high-income Francophone countries must take the lead,” the UNAIDS chief added. “At the same time, low- and middle-income francophone countries must also increase their share of investments based on economic strength and disease burden.”

In 2011, an estimated 3.1 million people were living with HIV in low- and middle income IOF countries in sub-Saharan Africa, accounting for 10 per cent of the global total, according to the report, ‘Decision Point La Francophonie: No new HIV infections, no one denied treatment.’ HIV prevalence varies widely among member countries in sub-Saharan Africa, from less than 0.3 per cent to 5 per cent of the adult population.

An estimated 826,000 people in low- and middle-income IOF countries were receiving HIV treatment in 2011, up from just 26,000 in 2003, according to the report. Increased access to HIV treatment resulted in a nearly 30 per cent decline in AIDS-related deaths between 2004 and 2011.

But despite this commendable progress, an estimated 970,000 people are still waiting to access life-saving HIV treatment in IOF countries, accounting for 14 per cent of the global treatment gap.

Taken as a whole, IOF countries in sub-Saharan Africa achieved 43 per cent coverage of HIV treatment in 2011, compared to 59 per cent coverage in non-IOF countries in the region. Among IOF countries in the region, just one in five pregnant women living with HIV has access to antiretroviral therapy for her own health and only 15 per cent of children eligible for HIV treatment are receiving it.

Programmes to prevent new HIV infections among children are gaining momentum across sub-Saharan Africa, with an estimated 34 per cent decline in new HIV infections in IOF countries between 2005 and 2011 – from 73,000 to 48,000.

Despite this progress, however, an estimated 450,000 children are living with HIV in low- and middle-income IOF member states of sub-Saharan Africa, according to the report. Coverage of HIV medicines to prevent transmission from pregnant women to their children in these countries remains low, at 36 per cent compared to 62 per cent coverage among non-IOF countries in the region.

“Impressive GDP growth rates in Africa have not translated into the elimination of hunger and malnutrition,” said the Administrator of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), Helen Clark, at the launch of the report in Nairobi. “Inclusive growth and people-centred approaches to food security are needed.”

With more than one in four of its 856 million people undernourished, Sub-Saharan Africa remains the world’s most food-insecure region. There are more than 15 million people at risk of malnutrition in its Sahel region alone – stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea – and an equal number in the Horn of Africa remain vulnerable after last year’s food crisis in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia.

UNDP’s Africa Human Development Report 2012: Towards a Food Secure Future stresses that action on agriculture alone will not be enough to eliminate hunger, and new approaches will have to include the improvement of health services and agricultural infrastructure, as well as giving a greater voice to the poor through strengthened local governments and civil society groups.

“Building a food-secure future for all Africans will only be achieved if efforts span the entire development agenda,” Miss Clark said at the report’s launch, which was attended by Kenya’s President Mwai Kibaki. The report is the first in UNDP’s Human Development Report series which focuses specifically on Africa.

It underlines that food insecurity should not be prevalent in a continent that has been experiencing high rates of economic growth and improvements in life expectancy and schooling in recent years.

“It is a harsh paradox that in a world of food surpluses, hunger and malnutrition remain pervasive on a continent with ample agricultural endowments,” said the Director of UNDP’s Africa Bureau, Tegegnework Gettu, in a news release.

While acknowledging that there are no quick fixes, the report emphasizes that food security can be achieved through immediate action in four critical areas. These include increasing agricultural productivity of smallholder farmers; boosting nutrition by expanding access to health services, education and clean water; implementing social programmes that protect farmers against natural disasters and conflict; and giving women and marginalized groups access to land and technology.

“The impressive economic growth which much of the continent has been recording must now be accompanied by decisive action to improve food security and nutrition,” UNDP’s Helen Clark said. “Growth divorced from advances in human development does little for people, and without advances in human development, countries cannot meet their full potential either.”

Sub-Saharan Africa has continued to enjoy robust growth as it is relatively isolated from the negative factors pulling down growth in most advanced countries, the IMF says in its Regional Economic Outlook for sub-Saharan Africa.

The region is also benefiting from one-off factors such as new natural resource production coming on stream, and recovery from drought and civil conflict in West Africa.

Growth from domestic demand has been relatively self-sustaining thanks to improved economic policies, higher foreign exchange reserves, and lower government debt. Rising levels of investment and consumption -particularly in the service sector- have been critical to growth.

But economic prospects differ across the region. Some middle-income countries -most notably South Africa- are performing less strongly because of their greater exposure to global developments, especially those in Europe.

In contrast, oil producers are projected to record robust growth because of new production coming on stream in Angola, and higher output levels in Nigeria and Chad. Finally, low-income countries are expected to continue enjoying strong growth of around 5½ percent.

In a background study published in the outlook, the IMF highlights the resiliency of sub-Saharan African financial systems. While confidence has been shaken in Europe by excessive government debt and vulnerable banking systems, sub-Saharan African financial systems have, so far, been generally insulated from global financial turmoil.

A second study reviews developments over the past decade in those countries where non-renewable natural resources are an important contributor to exports and government revenue. It considers the role played by natural resources in boosting incomes and the complex problems they present for macroeconomic management.

The outlook is subject to substantial downside risks. Renewed turbulence in euro area financial markets would adversely affect both exports and investment flows across the region. This would slow, but not derail growth in most countries.

A surge in oil prices, stemming from supply shocks, would pose serious challenges for oil-importing countries, squeezing real incomes and adding to external financing needs.