While the World Bank claims to provide new loans for health and social sectors, in actuality the necessary repayment of debts has hindered Africa's ability to mobilize their own resources against the HIV/AIDS pandemic and other health emergencies. With this in mind it is also of great necessity to end harmful structural adjustment conditions and similar policies. World Bank and IMF structural adjustment programs over the past two decades have had devastating social consequences in African countries, and particularly in the area of health care. The government cutbacks on health care has caused the closure of medical facilities as well as decreased accessibility to supplies. "Structural adjustment lending and related policies have undermined the right to health of Africa's people"(Isbister 23), directly contributing to the current health crisis and to the inability of African governments to mobilize resources in response. "The role of the World Bank in Africa is a critical ethical issue"(Isbister 24). Africa has already lost more than 17 million people to AIDS as more than 7,000 Africans die of the disease every day. This universal problem is most prevalent in Africa and feeds on and accentuates "structural inequalities and other societal divisions"(Ake 44). It inhibits Africa's efforts to put itself in greater human security and "a just share in today's interconnected global economy"(Ake 44). There is no greater single threat to Africa's stability and to its social and economic development than the HIV/AIDS pandemic and the broader health emergency of which it is a part. The continent is home to 25 million of the 36 million people worldwide living with HIV/AIDS. The pandemic multiplies the impact of other major diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis. It complicates the efficiency of health systems in general. .
Africa's health crisis is greatly related to the fact that it has been trapped in a cycle of dependency and underdevelopment by the international system.