Devex: The future of UNAIDS
“The United Nations AIDS agency ended 2018 in crisis. It is unclear how it will recover. The troubles center on the contents of a report, published by an independent panel in December, documenting how the program’s leaders failed to prevent or respond to allegations of sexual harassment, bullying, and abuse of power. … Days after the panel published its findings, [UNAIDS Executive Director Michel] Sidibé announced he would step down in June, six months earlier than expected. … In a best-case scenario, [Stephen Morrison, senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and director of its Global Health Policy Center,] said this transition could offer UNAIDS an opportunity to reposition itself to meet emerging threats to the global HIV response, including mounting donor disinterest. But it has also opened the program up to questions about whether, more than two decades after its creation, it is even still necessary…” (Green, 1/29).