UNAIDS: The First 10 Years

UNAIDS The First 10 Years258Bavuyise Mbebe iswalking with his motherto the local HIV treatmentcentre to collect his fi rstantiretroviral drugs, inPalmerton, Eastern Cape,South AfricaCorbis/Gideon MendelTask Team. The AIDS Strategy and Action Plan service, run by the World Bank forUNAIDS, seeks to support national aids authorities in assessing the quality of their planand provides technical support to improve it so it can more effectively translate resourcesinto services and permit alignment by external funds. The Global ImplementationSupport Team 24 was established to solve problems in the implementation of programmes,such as the procurement of drugs and other commodities – the major bottleneck forimplementing major grants and projects at country level. The Country Harmonizationand Alignment Tool aims to improve the transparency and accountability of partnerengagement at country level. It encourages the national AIDS authority to ask questionsof its partners in the AIDS response relating to the quality of aid: how engaged is civilsociety in policy, strategy, and resourcing decisions; how well are the internationalpartners adhering to the commitments of the “Three Ones”, the Global Task Team andthe Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness. Only by helping ensure these commitmentsare applied in country responses, will any real progress be made.Countries are being encouraged by UNAIDS to ‘know your epidemic’ through anunderstanding of the key populations most likely to be exposed to HIV, and of thebehaviour that leads to transmission (for example, people having sexual relationships witha number of partners and without using condoms). ‘Knowing your epidemic’ providesthe basis for countries to ‘know your response’, by recognizing the organizations andcommunities that are, or could be, contributing to the response, and by critically assessingthe extent to which the existing response is meeting the needs of those most vulnerable24Originally composed of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the World Bank, WHO,UNDP, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA),GIST was subsequently expanded to include the US Government, the United Kingdom Department forInternational Development (DFID), the German development agency Deutsche Gesellschaft für TechnischeZusammenarbeit(GTZ), the International HIV/AIDS Alliance, the International Council of AIDS Service Organizations(ICASO) and the Asia Pacific Council of AIDS Service Organizations.