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Combatting HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
One United Nations (Ch 2, paras 52 - 53)
52. The UN system has mounted joint efforts to address the multi-faceted challenges posed by HIV/AIDS and to advance the Millennium Declaration’s goals of reversing its spread and of reversing the incidence of malaria and other diseases, such as tuberculosis, across a broad range: from awareness-raising, advocacy and resource mobilization to capacity-building and delivery of health services. In fact, across all these areas, multiagency action has increasingly become the norm. For example, FAO, UNICEF and WFP are collectively supporting the improvement of food and nutrition security and the care for orphans and other children living with HIV and AIDS in southern Africa. In another example, the IFAD-managed Belgium Survival Fund Joint Programme brings together WHO, UNICEF and IFAD to provide assistance to HIV/AIDS orphans in Uganda and elsewhere in Southern Africa.
53. Launched by the Secretary-General in February 2003, the Commission on HIV/AIDS and Governance, chaired by the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa, has served to complement the work of the UN and other agencies on transmission and prevention, and to chart the way forward on HIV/AIDS and its linkages to governance in Africa in three interrelated areas: the implications of sustained human capital losses for the maintenance of state structures and economic development; the viability (technical, fiscal and structural) of using antiretroviral (ARV) medication as an instrument of mitigation; and the synthesis of best practices in HIV/AIDS and governance in key development areas, with a view to formulating policy recommendations, in partnership with UN and other agencies.
One United Nations (Box 2.15)
| Box 2.15: Responding to HIV and AIDS: Joint UN approaches in action |
The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, or UNAIDS, exemplifies the shared commitment of the UN system to addressing one of the gravest challenges facing humanity. Composed of ten co-sponsoring organizations (UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, UNDP, UNFPA, UNODC, ILO, WHO, UNESCO and the World Bank), UNAIDS is the main advocate for global action on the epidemic. It leads, strengthens and supports an expanded response aimed at preventing transmission of HIV/AIDS, providing care and support, reducing the vulnerability of individuals and communities to HIV/AIDS, and alleviating the pandemic's impact.
At the country level, HIV Theme Groups, under the leadership of the UN Resident Coordinator and supported by the UNAIDS Country Coordinator, work to harness the collective resources of UNAIDS and other concerned UN agencies together to advocate for and empower national leadership and to coordinate the response; to broker and facilitate public, private and civil society partnerships; to generate strategic information (good practices and lessons learned) for evidence-informed policy and programming; to build capacity for tracking, monitoring and evaluating country responses; and to facilitate both access to and the optimal use of resources (financial, technical and human) in support of national priorities.
Through the global initiative led by WHO and UNAIDS to ensure three million people globally are on anti-retroviral treatment by 2005 ("3 by 5"), joint UN efforts have supported universal access to effective, affordable and equitable prevention, treatment and care, including safe anti-retroviral treatment for people living with HIV/AIDS. The global initiative on HIV/AIDS Education led by UNESCO and UNAIDS, as part of its overall prevention strategy, is helping countries to develop comprehensive education, sector-based responses to HIV/AIDS, with a focus on children and young people, especially those who are most vulnerable. |
One United Nations (Ch 2, para 54)
54. In 2003, concern over the worsening HIV/AIDS pandemic and its severe consequences on food security, public health, educational systems and the institutional capacity in affected countries—particularly in Africa—led CEB to launch a renewed, comprehensive inter-agency effort that would bring to bear against the pandemic all of the system’s knowledge and operational capacity relating to its causes and its socio-economic effects.
One United Nations (Box 2.16)
| Box 2.16: Addressing the triple crisis of AIDS, food security and governance |
Organized in the framework of CEB's High Level Committee on Programmes by eleven organizations of the UN system, and under the leadership of UNAIDS and WFP, a task group collaborated in 2003 on the preparation of a system-wide strategy targeting the interlinked crisis of food security, weakened capacity for governance and AIDS in the Southern and Eastern African region. The strategy also addressed the connection between food security and livelihoods strategy and agricultural practices, including drought management.
At its Fall 2003 Session, CEB approved this strategy and called on its member organizations to draw upon it as a tool for advocacy and communication with regard to the nexus between HIV/AIDS, food security and governance; to adopt it as a guide for action by their country representatives and by UN country teams in areas where AIDS threatens; and to strive to increase financial investments in country-level actions directed at HIV/AIDS in Southern and Eastern Africa.
The strategy included a set of programmatic and supporting institutional actions necessary to enable the UN system to advance the achievement of the targets outlined in the Declaration of Commitment adopted at the General Assembly's Special Session on AIDS in June 2001 and, more broadly, in the Millennium Declaration.
CEB tasked UNDG to oversee and monitor the strategy's implementation on the ground. |
One United Nations (Ch 2, para 55)
55. The Millennium Declaration rightly recognizes other major diseases—malaria and other old but re-emerging threats like tuberculosis—as the cause of millions of deaths in the developing world, affecting the social and economic fabric of societies and countries’ prospects for development. Within the UN system, WHO has the lead in this area. Also, as noted in the Millennium Development Goals Report 2005, eighty countries are benefiting from over $290 million for malaria control, provided through the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Efforts are also being expanded to prevent malaria during pregnancy, through mosquito net distribution and preventive drug treatment.
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