UNAIDS: The First 10 Years

Chapter 7Chapter 7:Making the money work, 2004-2005181UNAIDS hadundoubtedly becomea significant playerin the AIDS world;now the doors ofprime ministers,presidents andministers of financewere open to it.By the end of 2003, UNAIDS estimated that 30.9 million people were living with HIV. Inthat year, 3.0 million were newly infected and 2.0 million people died. 1 In 2004, US$ 6079million was spent globally on AIDS and in 2005, the fi gure was US$ 8297 million.By the start of this biennium, there had been a huge increase in funding for tackling AIDS.From around US$ 300 million a decade earlier, global resources for AIDS in 2005 wereestimated to be US$ 8.3 billion 2 . While this was only about 70% of the US$ 12 billion per yearthat UNAIDS estimated was needed to finance a comprehensive response by 2005 3 , it wasstill a considerable increase.The majority of the new funding came through the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDSRelief (PEPFAR), the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and the WorldBank’s Multi-Country HIV/AIDS Programme in Africa (MAP). The two latter programmesare funded by the major donor countries. However, not to be ignored was the fact that anestimated 33% of all AIDS spending in low- and middle-income countries in 2005 came fromthe developing countries themselves 4 .UNAIDS’ advocacy work had contributed to this huge increase in funds. Donor countries,although not entirely uncritical of the organization were keen to work with UNAIDS and,in particular, welcomed its monitoring of the epidemic and information on policies andprogrammes.The AIDS movement had become huge. ‘A’ list celebrities, mainly from the United Kingdomand the United States of America, regularly visited AIDS projects in low-income countriesand proudly displayed their red ribbons as well as their white ‘Make poverty history’ wristbands.People working in other areas of health and development could, and did, feel underminedand overlooked.Jon Lidén, Director of Communications with the Global Fund, observed: “ UNAIDS hasmade AIDS cool … The fact that so many celebrities have been engaged with AIDS and[that] AIDS has been adopted by the culture industry has, I think, helped tremendously tode-stigmatise AIDS”.12007 AIDS epidemic update, November 2007.2UNAIDS (2007). Global Report 2007. Geneva, UNAIDS.3UNAIDS (2004). Fact Sheet 2004: Funding for AIDS. Geneva, UNAIDS.4UNAIDS (2005). Global Resource Availability for AIDS 2005. Geneva, UNAIDS.