UNAIDS: The First 10 Years

UNAIDS The First 10 Years50Despite the diversity of epidemics, the challenges of the epidemic to individuals, familiesand societies were very similar. The economic impact on families was often devastating;loss of income because of sickness was aggravated by the cost of drugs and medical care(where available) and ultimately funeral costs.There was also growing evidence of the impact of the epidemic on countries’ economies,as increasing numbers of people of working age fell sick and died. Productivity declined,tax revenues dropped, while pressures on health services increased. In Africa, particularly,the number of children orphaned by AIDS grew. Women’s vulnerability to HIV infection wasclear in these early years. By mid-1996, UNAIDS estimated that women accounted for over47% of nearly 21 million adults living with HIV 5. In Africa, the figures among young women(aged 15–24) were greater; young women with HIV outnumbered their male peers by aratio of 2:1 6 . Over the following 10 years of UNAIDS’ existence, these challenges wouldincrease as the numbers of infected and affected people increased.Countries desperately needed help. As the external Five Year Evaluation of UNAIDS,published in 2002, explained, ‘the driving imperative behind the creation of UNAIDS wasto reinforce national capacity to respond to the epidemic’.In theory, a strong national response would be achieved partly through coordinatingthe work of the UN, especially that of the six cosponsoring agencies. Such coordinationwould incorporate the normative work on policy, strategy and technical matters undertakenby UNAIDS at global level into their AIDS and related activities at country level,and promote collaborative action among the UN agencies through UN Theme Groupson HIV/AIDS.United Nations Theme Groups on HIV/AIDSUN Theme Groups consisted of the Heads of the cosponsoring UN agencies in the countryplus the UNAIDS Country Programme Adviser (CPA) or ‘Focal Point’. Groups were tasked toplan, manage and monitor the UN system’s actions in the country as well as strengthen theinterface between the UN system and a country’s National Coordination Mechanisms relatedto AIDS. Theme Groups also linked countries to global policy and research forums. A majorrole of the Theme Groups was to support national governments in forming a national strategicplan for responding to the epidemic, then attracting the resources to carry out the plan.As Clement Chan-Kam, who from 1996 was in charge of the Asia Pacific region for UNAIDS,explained, Theme Groups were (and still are) supposed to be the mechanism for, and anexpression of, UN collaboration and joint action, aiming to make best use of its collective5UNAIDS/WHO 2007 AIDS epidemic update, November 2007.6UNAIDS (1996). Point of View: Reducing Women’s Vulnerability to HIV Infection. Geneva, UNAIDS.