Robert Hecht, Olusoji Adeyi, and Iris Semini

About the author: Robert Hecht is senior adviser to the vice president for Human Development at the World Bank and has served as associate director of the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). Olusoji Adeyi is a senior health specialist for HIV/AIDS in the Europe and Central Asia Region of the World Bank. Iris Semini is technical officer on poverty, debt, and AIDS at UNAIDS.

There is growing global recognition that AIDS is exacerbated by poverty and, in turn, further impoverishes poor nations. Indeed, many analysts are realizing that as more people in developing countries die of AIDS, the fewer workers there are to contribute to the economy and the less able such nations become to finance strategies to fight AIDS. As...