Re-Evaluating UNAIDS

In any organization, the transition from the founding leader to his or her successor can be tricky. It's a moment for reflection on the core form and function, and on the nature of leadership itself. In the case of the United Nations Joint Programme on HIV/AIDS UNAIDS, the new Executive Director, Michel Sidibe, has two contributions to help him think about the path ahead: the UNAIDS Leadership Transition Working Group, co-chaired by Ngaire Woods at Global Economic Governance Programme and Ruth Levine at the Center for Global Development, and the second independent evaluation of UNAIDS.

The UNAIDS Leadership Transition Working Group, comprised of 15 knowledgeable members taking an independent look, is finalizing a set of recommendations to the new Executive Director and the Programme Coordinating Board (PCB) that address how UNAIDS can evolve in its next phase.

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Ruth Levine

Non-Resident Fellow

The second evaluation, commissioned by UNAIDS and co-led by ITAD and HLSP, will focus on the effectiveness and outcomes of UNAIDS and its co-sponsors at the global, regional and country levels, and will also assess UNAIDS' progress in responding to the first independent evaluation in 2002.

As a part of the evaluation process, an Oversight Committee has been created to provide guidance to the evaluation team and communicate findings and progress to the PCB. The most recent meeting of the Oversight Committee was held last week from February 2-4 in Kuala Lumpur, and included an update on the country level reports that are currently being conducted by ITAD and HLSP as a part of the evaluation. The Oversight Committee critically reviewed the progress of the evaluation team, identified few gaps and proposed suggestions to guide the evaluation team further in their work.

Anandi Yuvraj, a member of both the Oversight Committee and the Working Group, has helped to communicate the draft recommendations of the Group at the Kuala Lumpur meeting—a great opportunity for the recommendations to be put to good and immediate use. She feels the working group recommendations could inform and might strengthen the evaluation outcomes once they start unfolding through country visits and thus compliment each other.

It is expected that the final report of the UNAIDS Leadership Transition Working Group will be available in early March, at a time when Mr. Sidibe will have had a chance to settle in to his new role and be ready to make his own evaluation about the future of UNAIDS.

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