Thirty years into the pandemic, we have learned that the leadership required to rout HIV/AIDS is far more than purely political. It’s religious, ‘traditional,' cultural, and above all, leadership from civil society. Indeed, civil society has often played the crucial role. Nor is the political leadership confined to the bilateral donor community; it must come in equal or greater measure from every country directly coping with the virus, and with particular intensity from countries where the prevalence rates are high.
Ironically, and in a fashion that is frankly startling, the most notable absence of leadership lies within the United Nations. Those agencies directly responsible — UNAIDS, WHO, UNICEF — have a past history of shocking delinquency in several aspects of their collective response. Even the voices are inconsistent: Ban Ki-moon, the current Secretary-General, seems to believe that tired rhetoric alone is sufficient to quell HIV/AIDS.
We’re not about to give the United Nations a moment’s pause in this struggle.