The Successes and Failures of Global Health Organizations: The World Health Organization, UNAIDS, Médicins sans Frontières and PEPFAR

Abstract

Chapter 7 examined the operations of multilateral, bilateral and private donors in financing the fight against HIV/AIDS. This chapter examines the operations of five organizations that focus more directly on addressing HIV/AIDS health issues on the ground: the World Health Organization; UNAIDS; Médicins sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders); the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR); and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The first two form part of the United Nations (UN) system, the third is a private, non-profit non-governmental organization that relies on volunteers to deliver medical services and products in developing countries that are facing health crises and the fourth and fifth are a US government program and agency, respectively. The UN has won the Nobel Peace Prize a number of times: UN Middle East mediator (1950); UNHCR, the UN refugee agency (1954); UN Secretary-General (1961); UNICEF (1965); ILO, the UN labor agency (1969); UNHCR, the UN refugee agency (1981); UN peacekeeping (1988); and UN Secretary-General and the UN, jointly (2001). There are several bodies inside the UN that also have won the Nobel Peace Prize, such as the International Atomic Energy Agency (2005) and Director Mohamed El-Baradei and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2007). In addition, the prime minister of Canada, Lester Bowles Pearson, won Nobel Peace Prize for his work with the UN (1957). Médicins sans Frontières has won the Nobel Peace Prize once (1999)