UNAIDS: The First 10 Years

UNAIDS The First 10 Years148underlining the need for addressing the impact of poverty and inequality on all the populationsof the developing world.Empowerment of women is essential but at the same time boys and men must be involvedin prevention programmes too, otherwise there is a risk of alienating them.In 2003, the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General convened a Task Force on Women,Girls and HIV/AIDS in Southern Africa that identified key actions to reduce girls’ andwomen’s prevalence levels. This Task Force would lead to the setting up, in 2004, of theGlobal Coalition on Women and AIDS (GCWA).The Five Year Evaluation of UNAIDS‘Success atconsolidating andpresenting theepidemiology of thedisease underpinneda strong narrativeabout the scaleand threat todevelopment’.The Five Year Evaluation of UNAIDS inevitably led to a period of reflection and reassessment,changes in policy and use of resources, especially in countries.The Evaluation described the challenges with the Cosponsors, and the fact that fi nancialarrangements brought Cosponsors neither benefits in the form of extra funds, nor theirsupport through commitments to fund; ‘in that sense, the word Cosponsor is a completemisnomer’ 11 . But the report welcomed the Secretariat’s efforts that have ‘ultimately bornfruit, with a global strategy that is owned jointly by the Cosponsors’. The Programme’ssuccesses included reaching a global consensus on policy and programme approachesto fight AIDS, and acceptance by development agencies and civil society organizations ofcommon programming approaches – although ‘it is too early to say that public politicalcommitments have been translated into effective action’. A major success had been insecuring more finance from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development(OECD) donors; by November 2002, a nearly sevenfold increase in international resourcestargeted at AIDS in Africa amounted to approximately US$ 1 billion 12 . The scale of responsehad started to reverse the decline in funding of the 1990s.Much of UNAIDS’ work was praised by the Evaluation Team. It wrote of ‘a talented andcommitted team of people’ who have created a unique UN Joint Programme ‘that hasestablished itself as a leader in tackling HIV/AIDS, and a centre of knowledge about thedisease’. It has been successful in its role of leadership; the advocacy work has been ‘innovative,flexible and adaptive’; new types of partnership have been formed, horizontallearning has been developed into a powerful tool and diverse groups such as people livingwith HIV, nongovernmental organizations and business people have been brought into theprocess. ‘Success at consolidating and presenting the epidemiology of the disease underpinneda strong narrative about the scale and threat to development’.The major criticism focused on UNAIDS’ work in countries. Although the team found thatcoordination at global levels had been effective, it had been much less so at country level.11UNAIDS (2002). Executive Summary of the Five Year Evaluation of UNAIDS. Geneva, UNAIDS.12UNAIDS (2002). Executive Director’s Report to the 13th Meeting of the UNAIDS PCB, December. Geneva, UNAIDS.