UNAIDS: The First 10 Years

Chapter 7from the developed world for support, especially with the increase in funding. The use ofexternal consultants is not an ideal solution, as it does nothing to build the skills of localpeople and takes money out of the country. Nor do experts from the North necessarilyunderstand the specific needs and complexities of the South.201Staff in the UNAIDS Secretariat did some hard, lateral thinking and produced an innovativeand well-targeted solution – regionally based Technical Support Facilities. These facilitiesprovide high-quality technical assistance for the strategic planning, implementation,management, and monitoring and evaluation of national HIV/AIDS programmes.The idea was to expand UNAIDS’ cooperation with already existing regional networks andinstitutions, in order to enable an enhanced, nationally owned and cross-regional supportsystem. Four such facilities have now been set up in Southern Africa, West and Central Africa,Eastern Africa and South-East Asia and the Pacific since 2005.The UN Consolidated Plan to ‘Make the Money Work’ contributes to the development ofregional technical support capacity and South-South cooperation.The role of UNAIDS in these Technical Support Facilities is to ensure quality, to do trainingand exchanges to strengthen local experts’ skills and to provide core and seed funding.These facilities are innovative insofar as they are more culturally appropriate to each specificcountry and build in-country capacity using local and regional expertise; in that sense theyhave helped to ‘redefine’ the traditional paradigm of development, whereby the Northprovides aid to the South. In Latin America and the Caribbean, UNAIDS partners with theTechnical Horizontal Cooperation Group, Brazil’s FIOCRUZ (one of Brazil’s and Latin America’slargest biomedical research institutes), Mexico’s National Institute of Public Health and theRegional HIV/AIDS Initiative for Latin America and the Caribbean.A better coordinated United Nations effortIn December 2005, Annan wrote to all UN Resident Coordinators directing them to establisha Joint UN Team on AIDS, with one joint programme of support, as recommended by theGlobal Task Team. It was an unprecedented directive to the whole UN system, aimed atstrengthening its work in countries including support for the “Three Ones”. Annan wrote:‘The Team should consist of the operational level staff working on AIDS, including thosecurrently working at the Technical Working Group. The Team should work under the authorityof the UN Resident Coordinator System and the overall guidance of the UN Country Team,and be facilitated by the UNAIDS Country Coordinator’.This decision by the Secretary-General, commented Piot, showed once again how AIDS andUNAIDS have triggered a new way of doing business.