The establishment of the Joint UN Teams on AIDS in Ethiopia has emerged within the larger context of both UN reform and international efforts to improve aid effectiveness. The imperative to create Joint UN Teams on AIDS comes directly from the June 2005 recommendations of the Global Task Team on Improving AIDS Coordination among Multilateral Institutions and International Donors. In September 2005, the UN General Assembly endorsed the recommendations of the Global Task Team and the UN Secretary-General directed all UN Resident Coordinators to establish Joint UN Teams with one Joint Programme Support.
A series of joint programming exercises carried out in 2005 and 2006 within the UN Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) process for Ethiopia provided a good foundation for the establishment of the Joint UN Team on AIDS with one Joint Programme of Support.
The Ethiopian Context
The development of the Joint Programme for Ethiopia and determining the contents of the programme involved various processes and consultations with different stakeholders among the UN partner agencies, national authorities and partner organizations. The planning process involved Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats (SWOT) analysis of UN agencies. The SWOT analysis was used to supplement information collected during the 2006 UN mapping of human and financial resources. Both the mapping and SWOT analysis gave insight to the varied organizational characteristics and operational dynamics of the twelve organizations involved in the proposed Joint UN Team on AIDS
with One Joint Programme of Support. UN and affiliated agencies participated and committed themselves to action are UNDP, UNICEF, UNFPA, WFP, WHO, UNESCO, UNHCR, FAO, World Bank, ILO, IOM and UNAIDS.
This process helped in the development of the Joint UN Team’s terms of reference as well as processes and systems for strategic planning and prioritizing of the limited resources for the Joint Programme of Support. Against the UNAIDS Division of Labour for Technical Support, the organizations have also assessed their capacity to provide technical support for 18 support areas. (See Annex A for a breakdown of which UN organizations are responsible for the 17 technical support areas.)
The division of labour provides an opportunity to not only improve coordination in providing technical support to Ethiopia—whether to government, cooperating partners or civil society—but in also establishing single points of enquiry or ‘entry’ for these stakeholders. Furthermore, this rational division of labour encourages enhanced specialization and clearer differentiation among the UNCT members.
Ethiopia’s Joint Team on AIDS: Functions
The Joint UN Team on AIDS’ primary purpose is to provide coherent interagency technical inputs to the UNCT for optimal support of the UN system to the national response. The Joint UN Team will work along the four UNDAF outcomes on AIDS plus the emergency response and UN learning strategy. The Joint Team works under the authority of the UN Resident Coordinator System and the overall guidance of the UNCT. The team is facilitated by UNAIDS Country Coordinator (UCC) and currently consists of 70 UN staff working on AIDS (35 full time and 35 par time) as nominated by the UN Heads of Agency, as per criteria agreed upon… Read more [pdf]