1 Chair/Vice-Chairs proposal for reform Draft as of 4 April 2007 - PDF document

1 Chair/Vice-Chair’s proposal for reform Draft as of 4 April 2007 Strengthening of global coordination on AIDS; Implementation of PCB decision 8, adopted under agenda item 5 on 8 th December 2006 at the 19 th Programme and Coordinating Board (PCB) meeting in Lusaka 6 – 8 December 2006. 1. The PCB decision addresses two different perspectives of the subject; the decision “establishes a process to elaborate further on……” -- UNAIDS´ role in strengthening Global Coordination of AIDS, and -- how to develop the UNAIDS Programme Coordination Board into a more relevant and effective policy-making Board 2. The decision also identifies a number of matters that would be included and addressed in the process, these are -- number of Board meetings, -- venues, -- character of meetings, -- board representation, -- NGO participation, -- speaking protocol, -- decision–making, and -- the further development of the constituency system. 3. For both parts of the decision the present process established under the leadership of the Chair and the Vice-Chair of the Board is to be seen as the first step in both strengthening the role of UNAIDS in Global Coordination of AIDS and the development of a PCB into a more relevant and effective policy making body. Some steps should be possible to agree upon at the up-coming PCB meeting in June, 2007. Certain other ideas and proposals, however, will require further analyses and deliberations.These are brought up in section 7.3. 4. On the first aspect of the said decision, “UNAIDS’ role in strengthening Global Coordination of AIDS” it can be noted that the role of UNAIDS (more defined role) involves advocacy, coordination and division of labour in between each relevant organization. A core mandate of UNAIDS is its coordinating role. The specific character of the Joint Programme, a programme consisting of a Secretariat and ten co-sponsoring agencies facilitates this mandate. Matters related to “UNAIDS`s role in strengthening Global Coordination of AIDS” were part of the five-year evaluation of UNAIDS, a report of the Executive Director in responding to the Five year evaluation (the Future direction of UNAIDS) as well as the work in 2003 of the open-ended working group on this matter. The task before us at this stage is to refine UNAIDS role and mandate, with a special focus on PCB. In particular, a distinction should be made between decision-making on concrete matters at hand and more strategic discussions on certain themes. Detailed discussions and possible decisions on more far reaching matters related to roles and mandates will have to be part of a later process, and also conformed with the broader UN reform agenda. 5. On the second part of the decision, “how to develop the UNAIDS´ PCB into a more relevant and effective policy-making Board”, the analyses and proposals for change must

2 build on a common understanding of the shortcomings of the current modus operandi, an analysis on what issues and functions that do work and what does not work, identify where there is a need for change, in order for PCB to be more operational and effective. 6. The following problems and shortcomings have been identified, in the Board debate and in informal talks and discussions following the debate. -- The PCB has today too little impact on the rest of the “system”, this goes for both the UN system and other international partners; many partners, even co-sponsors, do not see the value of being present, and active, at PCB meetings. The sense of ownership is not strong enough. -- The thematic meetings have not been able to develop fully into meetings of the kind they were supposed to be, instead they have developed into a mix of functions, including being a forum for debate, a policy making forum and a more concrete decision making forum. -- Increased workloads and overloaded agendas make it necessary to rush through both debates and negotiations, it might be necessary to discuss the valued added in having additional PCB meetings per year. -- The location of meetings (thematic meetings) outside Geneva has led to extra work load and high costs. -- The PCB has developed to a large extent into a donor driven entity, developing countries´ participation is limited, both in plenary sessions and, even more so, in the drafting group --The constituency system does not work well, only a few Board seats seem to have well functioning constituency systems, -- There is a lack of involvement and ownership in the UNAIDS, in particular the PCB, work. Several important stakeholders for the fight against HIV and AIDS do not participate in the work, among others the private sector, for example neither enterprises, nor foundations. -- There is a serious lack of coherence in action, within secretariats but also, maybe even more so, a lack in coherence in what members do on the PCB Board and what they do on the Board of the ten cosponsoring partners, and also other relevant decision making fora. Even though the PCB and other decision making bodies several times have agreed on far reaching actions to assure better coherence in action it is still very clear that a lot more needs to be done in implementing these policy decisions. -- Too many PCB decisions require far reaching, and often duplicative, reporting procedures by the Secretariat, requirements that hinder the Secretariat from focusing in a more thorough way on implementation of decisions and recommendations. -- There is very little follow up on accountability matters; at different levels and for different stakeholders; for example, how to hold co-sponsors accountable to their commitments to the Joint programme, how to hold member states accountable to their commitments and actions and, not least, the accountability of PCB in itself. -- A root cause of many of the aforementioned problems is due to a lack of involvement and ownership. 7. Based on above identified problems and shortcomings a number of ideas and proposals could be considered, in the following presented under three main headings: -- Management reform, including interaction between UNAIDS and other actors and the development of PCB into a more relevant and effective policy-making body. -- Structural reform, addressing issues related to involvement and ownership and governance matters. -- Other matters; mostly matters that require further analyses and discussion.

3 7.1 Management reform: 7.1.1 Interaction between UNAIDS and other actors. 7.1.1.1 Reform activities where decisions can, and should, be taken at management level; by heads of UNAIDS, co-sponsors and other relevant agencies. There is already today a great number of areas and possibilities where a better coordination could be developed between UNAIDS and other development partners; within and outside the UN family. Following the Global Task Team on Improving AIDS Coordination (GTT) some steps have also already been taken. Further action to improve interaction among partners in a more systematic manner could include: -- joint UNAIDS and GFATM secretariat meetings on a regular basis -- regular meetings of the executive heads of the main multilateral organizations engaged in HIV and AIDS programmes, -- a further development of systematic coordination among relevant partners at country level, within UNAIDS (Secretariat and co-sponsors), with other UN agencies and with other development partners, multilateral and bilateral, and also with authorities in HIV/AIDS affected countries. -- a further development of the UBW (only relevant for UNAIDS Secretariat and the co- sponsors); see further below, para 7.1.2.6. Co-ordination activities of this kind do not require decisions by member states, they can build upon decisions already taken at the intergovernmental level and should also be part of ongoing UN reform. 7.1.1.2 Reform activities that require decisions at intergovernmental level There are also coordination activities that in a broader sense involve member states and therefore require further discussion and decisions at intergovernmental level, decisions by the PCB as well as decisions by the Boards of other relevant organizations. Some reform proposals that have been mentioned and discussed in the past are the following: -- Chairs and vice chairs of governing boards of UNAIDS Cosponsoring organizations and the GFATM participate in PCB meetings. -- An informal meeting/retreat to be organized for the Chairs/vice-chairs of governing boards of UNAIDS Cosponsoring organizations, the GFATM and the PCB. The meeting/retreat could also include the heads of each organization. Even though these coordination activities could be implemented within the framework of the ECOSOC resolution, discussions in the past show that they require further analyses and discussion among member states.