UNAIDS: The First 10 Years

UNAIDS The First 10 Years140any longer. So, suddenly they are the outcasts and they used to be the superpower. [Allthese] psychological factors [lie] behind it, also”.As a newly independent state, the concept of development cooperation was novel toUkraine but, by the late 1990s, there was a small United Nations presence in Ukraine.By 2007, there were three professional staff supported by administrative staff, as wellas two people assisting with the implementation of the “Three Ones” and two UNvolunteers.In the early to mid-1990s, civil society was also a relatively new concept in Ukraine,as throughout the whole of Eastern Europe, and community-based responses were justemerging. There was no tradition of working across sectors, so a multisectoral approachhad to be encouraged.Mikkelsen explained: “Even within the health sector, there are very vertical structures.So the people working on sexually transmitted infections don’t talk to those workingon drug control who don’t speak to the AIDS people, and each is running their littleempire. But from the beginning, UNAIDS established some pilot projects, such asworking with injecting drug users and sex workers. At the same time they worked ata high level with senior government officials including President Kuchma. He wasoutspoken on AIDS very early on”.Jantine Jacobi, UNAIDS Country Coordinator in Ukraine in 2002 and 2003,recalled that after seven consecutive years in Africa, she enjoyed working in thiscompletely different setting and context and appreciated the working relationship withgovernment counterparts.The epidemic she encountered was a very different one as, for example, young, welleducated people from an affluent background were the most affected. But there werealso similarities, such as the stigma and discrimination against injecting drug userswith HIV, including from health workers. Sadly this is not untypical of health workerattitudes towards people with HIV in many other countries.As the UN system was still in its infancy in Ukraine, and global developmentdiscussions were not yet centred on harmonization and alignment, Jacobi observedthat the UN was initially more inward looking rather than making its own expertiseavailable for supporting national priorities. She therefore facilitated regular meetingsand closer links between Theme Groups and Technical Working Groups (as thelatter included the membership of civil society), other development partners andgovernment. She also aimed to rally the agencies around the UNAIDS ProgrammeAcceleration Funds (PAF), ensuring their focus was on providing support to nationalpriorities such as young people using drugs. One such PAF-funded undertaking wasled by the United Nations Children’s Fund with participation from the United Nations