ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the events leading to the establishment of UNAIDS as a unique institutional partnership within the framework of the UN system, following the demise of the GPA, and outlines the obstacles and challenges that confronted the birth of the new joint program. The structure and governance of UNAIDS is presented and analyzed in the light of the concept and the reality of “co-sponsorship” around which the new program has been modeled, highlighting the trying relationship between the co-sponsoring agencies and the increasingly powerful secretariat, and between the program and the efforts within the higherlevel United Nations Organization. The chapter also brings into focus the achievements of UNAIDS in mobilizing global support and resources to combat the epidemic, and in ensuring that the problem of HIV/AIDS has remained prominently on the international agenda in the face of challenge from other pressing global concerns such as poverty, climate change, and terrorism.
