Building and Coordinating a Multisectoral Response

Abstract

In order to address the full scale of the AIDS pandemic, Jonathan Mann realized that the Global Programme on AIDS (GPA) had to partner more closely with other World Health Organization (WHO) technical programs and to engage more with WHO’s regional offices in providing support to national AIDS programs. In addition, GPA needed to collaborate more with United Nations organizations working in the social, cultural, economic and political sectors. One of the most important collaborations was the establishment of the WHO/United Nations Development Program Alliance to Combat AIDS. GPA also engaged with a broad range of non-governmental organizations, much more extensively than any previous WHO program. These included numerous AIDS Service Organizations and human rights groups. All the while, GPA went to great lengths—as exemplified with the January 1988 convening of the World Summit of Ministers of Health in London—to combat complacency toward the pandemic. These collaboration and advocacy efforts helped establish GPA as the preeminent institution in developing, coordinating, and directing the global AIDS response.