UNAIDS: The First 10 Years

UNAIDS The First 10 Years52As Director of Country Support, Moodie was responsible for getting the Theme Groupsup and running as quickly, and in as many key countries, as possible. “Getting the ThemeGroups going, it always struck me as being like a dysfunctional family at Christmas. Yougo to dinner with everyone but as soon as it’s over you want to go. People were draggedreluctantly to the table but it was absolutely the right way to go”.The essential challenge was neatly summarized in the report to the fifth meeting of the PCBin November 1997: ‘UN Theme Groups on HIV/AIDS attempt to bring together agencieswith 50 years of separate institutional development in a common effort to support thenational response. Each of these institutions has a different relationship with governmentagencies and bilateral donors, with nongovernmental organizations and communitygroups. With this as a starting point, it was not surprising that the experience of the 132Theme Groups on HIV/AIDS had so far been mixed’.At the same meeting, members spoke of their experience of Theme Groups. Teethingproblems had in several cases been overcome – for example, the initial lack of interestamong Heads of cosponsoring agencies or the agencies’ determination to protect theirown mandates rather than work together on the epidemic. Others had more positive experiencesand had managed to strengthen relationships with governments and attract morefunding. One commented that the Theme Group had broadened the national responsethat was “previously almost exclusively biomedical in approach” – exactly the type of resultenvisaged in creating UNAIDS.The advent of theTheme Group onHIV/AIDS waswelcomed by civilsociety groups,particularly incountries wherethese groups weresidelined by governmentor did nothave a strong role.Several members commented that the most successful Theme Groups were those that hadformed strong partnerships with nongovernmental organizations and affected communitiesas well as government.The advent of the Theme Group on HIV/AIDS was welcomed by civil society groups, particularlyin countries where these groups were sidelined by government or did not have astrong role. In China in the mid-1990s, for example, civil society organizations were onlyjust beginning to emerge and make their voices heard. In India, on the other hand, suchgroups were already very vocal and active, especially among marginalized groups suchas sex workers, drug users and gay men. Like most governments, the Indian governmenthad difficulty managing the relationship with these groups, for whom the establishmentof UNAIDS, and specifically UNAIDS Secretariat, represented “a new dawn”, said Chan-Kam.Inevitably, civil society had high expectations of the new Joint Programme. At the thirdmeeting of the PCB in April 1997, for example, Luis Gautier, the nongovernmental organizationrepresentative for Latin America/Caribbean on the PCB and Coordinator of Red deAcción Comunitaria, Chile, expressed his disappointment at the slow progress of Theme