Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS

thumb|UNAIDS Headquarters building in Geneva, Switzerland

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS; , ONUSIDA) is the main advocate for accelerated, comprehensive and coordinated global action on the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

The mission of UNAIDS is to lead, strengthen and support an expanded response to HIV and AIDS that includes preventing transmission of HIV, providing care and support to those already living with the virus, reducing the vulnerability of individuals and communities to HIV and alleviating the impact of the epidemic. UNAIDS seeks to prevent the HIV/AIDS epidemic from becoming a severe pandemic.

UNAIDS is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, where it shares some site facilities with the World Health Organization. It is a member of the United Nations Development Group. Currently, Winnie Byanyima leads UNAIDS as executive director. Former executive directors are Peter Piot (1995–2008) and Michel Sidibé (2009–2019).

UNAIDS regularly publishes articles and reports on the status of the AIDS epidemic, including roadmaps to ending HIV as a public health threat and updates on the current scientific findings on vaccines and treatments for HIV infections and AIDS.

The agency promotes the GIPA principle (greater involvement of people living with HIV) formulated in 1994, and endorsed by the United Nations in 2001 and 2006.

Goals

Leadership and advocacy for effective action on the pandemic;
Strategic information and technical support to guide efforts against AIDS worldwide;
Tracking, monitoring and evaluation of the pandemic and of responses to it;
Civil society engagement and the development of strategic partnerships;
Mobilization of resources to support an effective response.

Role

thumb|UNAIDS Policy Position Paper on Intensifying HIV Prevention in 2005

The aim of UNAIDS is to help mount and support an expanded response to HIV/AIDS, one that engages the efforts of many sectors and partners from government and civil society.

Established by ECOSOC resolution 1994/24 on 26 July 1994, UNAIDS officially launched in January 1996. The organization is guided by a Programme Coordinating Board with representatives of 22 governments from all geographic regions, the UNAIDS Cosponsors, and five representatives of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), including associations of people living with HIV/AIDS.

History

While UN AIDS was officially created in 1994 with UN resolution, and launched in 1996, the roots of UN AIDS can be traced back to the first recorded case of HIV/AIDS 15 years prior in 1981, and the launch of the Global Network of People living with HIV/AIDS ("GNP+") started in 1986 by Dietmar Bolle, an HIV positive specialist nurse and activist, who aimed to connect people living with HIV/AIDS around the world.

Origin: 1920s–1980 and Pre-HIV/AIDS Crisis

It is widely believed that HIV first crossed over from chimpanzees to humans in the 1920s through humans eating chimps infected with simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), a virus similar to HIV, in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo. Scientific and medical research determined the chimps hunt and eat two smaller monkey species red-capped mangabeys and greater spot-nosed monkeys which carried two strains of SIV which combined through infection and transmission into "SIVcpz", a virus almost identical to HIV, which eventually spread to humans.

The first "verified" case of HIV was detected retrospectively using a blood sample from 1959 from a man living in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo, albeit there are believed to be numerous other HIV cases prior based on observed symptoms and patterns of death. which described rare pneumonia in five patients and "the possibility of a cellular-immune dysfunction related to a common exposure that predisposes individuals to opportunistic infections such as pneumocystosis and candidiasis". In 1985, the CDC hosted the First International Conference on AIDS in Atlanta.

1981–1994: The Global Response Prior to UNAIDS

As Lindsay Knight summarises the understanding and outlook of the early 1980s in her report, UNAIDS: The first ten years, 1996–2006: In response to heightened scrutiny and reports of his gross mismanagement, however, Sidibe informed the agency's board on 13 December 2018 that he would leave his post in June 2019.

A panel of independent experts released a report on 13 December 2018 saying Sidibe was overseeing a "patriarchal" workplace and promoting a "cult of personality" centred on him as the all-powerful chief. The experts further said the situation could not be changed unless Sidibe, a native of Mali who has headed the UN agency for nine years, resigned.

Sidibe denied claims that he tried to force an employee to drop allegations that she was sexually assaulted by his former deputy. Despite the scathing report, he insisted he was the right man to turn around the organisation, a claim which had been roundly rejected.

Staff, Sponsors and Partners

Cosponsors

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
World Food Programme (WFP)
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)
United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
International Labour Organization (ILO)
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)
World Health Organization (WHO)
World Bank
UN Women

The co-sponsors and the UNAIDS Secretariat form the Committee of Cosponsoring Organizations, which meets twice each year.

Leadership

The executive director of UNAIDS is Winnie Byanyima, who assumed the role on 1 November 2019. Peter Piot was the first executive director of UNAIDS. He served from its inception in 1995 until 2008, when he departed to lead the Institute for Global Health at Imperial College London. On 1 January 2009, Michel Sidibé became the new executive director of UNAIDS until 2019 when he was appointed as Minister of Health and Social Affairs of Mali.

Partnerships

The United Nations Declaration Commitment on HIV/AIDS provides the guiding framework for UNAIDS action. Promoting partnerships among various stakeholders is reflected within the leadership section of the Declaration of Commitment. In particular, it calls for complementation of government efforts by the full and active participation of civil society, the business community and the private sector through:

Establishing and strengthening mechanisms that involve civil society including faith-based organizations (FBOs), the private sector, and people living with HIV/AIDS at all levels
Encouraging and supporting local and national organizations to expand and strengthen regional partnerships, coalitions and networks
Full participation of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA), those in vulnerable groups and people mostly at risk, particularly young people
Addressing issue of stigma and discrimination.

UNAIDS works to promote partnerships among and between this diverse and broad range of non-state entities. This calls for increases in both the number of new actors, as well as in innovative ways of working, to facilitate increased capacity of non-state entities to respond effectively to the epidemic at all levels.

With the momentum generated by the UN Special Session on HIV/AIDS, the main challenges are to:

Sustain and deepen involvement of those contributing and critical to the response such as PLWHA organizations
Move beyond the organizations already involved and reach out to optimally engage a broad range of sectors/actors.

UNAIDS has collaborated with the Roman Catholic Church, especially Caritas Internationalis, in the fight against AIDS, something which materialized in a December 2005 message by Pope Benedict XVI. However, it indicated in a 2009 communiqué that it did not agree with the Pope's statement that condoms were unhelpful in AIDS prevention, instead calling them "essential".

From policy to action

In engaging non-state entities in an expanded response to the epidemic, the UNAIDS Secretariat:

Fosters and supports global, regional and country level partnerships which include linkages between and among civil society, private sector, philanthropy, media, and with particular attention to organizations of people living with HIV/AIDS
Supports governments and UN agencies in developing partnerships with non-state entities. This includes support for approaches intended to increase participation, improve connectedness of efforts and strengthen the various participants' capacity for action.

Donors

As the main advocate for global action on HIV/AIDS, UNAIDS leads, strengthens and supports an expanded response aimed at preventing the transmission of HIV, providing care and support, reducing the vulnerability of individuals and communities to HIV/AIDS, and alleviating the impact of the epidemic. To fulfil this mandate, UNAIDS is supported by voluntary contributions from governments, foundations, corporations, private groups (for example, students, universities, sporting clubs, etc.) and individuals.

In 2003, more than US$118.5 million was received from 30 governments, philanthropic organizations, individuals from around the world and others. The largest donors were the Netherlands followed by Norway, the United States, Sweden, the United Kingdom and Japan. In 2004, 35 governments contributed to UNAIDS including India.

In 2020 UNAIDS received US$ 247.2 million in 2020, in voluntary donations. In 2021, US$ 171.4 million in core funding was made available by twenty-seven governments, with the US leading donating $45,000,000, followed by Sweden and the Netherlands. In addition, In 2021, non-core resources amounting to US$ 75.9 million were made available to UNAIDS, led by the US, with $53,807,294, followed by the UNFPA and Russia. A month later, Australia agreed to a five year partnership with UNAIDS, committing AUD 25 million from 2022 to 2027 to the cause.

UNAIDS has several Goodwill Ambassadors who help strengthen awareness of the organisation's work.

Goodwill Ambassadors

Princess Stéphanie of Monaco
Her Royal Highness Princess Soamsawali Krom Muen Suddhanarinatha of Thailand
King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukiidi IV of the Tooro Kingdom in Uganda
Pia Alonzo Wurtzbach
Jenna Ortega
Racheal Kundananji
Oum
Funke Akindele
King of Buganda
King William Nadiope IV of the Busoga region