World Bank names Zimbabwean to head AIDS program

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The World Bank on Thursday named David Wilson, a Zimbabwean national who has written extensively about AIDS in the developing world, to head the poverty-fighting institution's global HIV/AIDS program.

Wilson, who joined the Bank in 2003, has advised governments in South Africa, Nigeria, Lebanon, Vietnam, China and Papua New Guinea.

Wilson said one of the Bank's key tasks was "providing countries with evidence to better understand where and how new HIV infections are occurring, and to use proven approaches to tackle these infections."

"With better evidence we can make prevention services succeed and make AIDS treatment more sustainable," he said in a statement.

With more HIV/AIDS funding going to organizations such as the Geneva-based Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the World Bank has slowly shifted its focus from financing HIV/AIDS projects to advising countries on how best to manage AIDS funding and improve HIV prevention programs.

Wilson will lead the Bank's delegation to the International AIDS Conference in Vienna this month, the Bank said.

(Writing by Lesley Wroughton; Editing by David Storey)