Dr Rajiv Shah, administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) with Mr Michel Sidibé, Executive Director of UNAIDS. 27 January 2011. Credit: UNAIDS.
Dr Rajiv Shah, administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) visited UNAIDS headquarters in Geneva to meet with Executive Director Michel Sidibé on 27 January.
During the meeting Mr Sidibé thanked Dr Shah for the continued strong partnership with the US government and shared his priorities for action for the AIDS response as outlined in the new UNAIDS Strategy. This strategy sets out ten key results aimed at achieving UNAIDS’ vision of Zero new infections, Zero discrimination and Zero AIDS-related deaths.
Under the leadership of Dr Shah USAID has recently embarked on a comprehensive reform effort, called USAID FORWARD, with an emphasis on development aid delivering results and driving innovation.
Dr Shah and Mr Sidibé discussed how to ensure that recent breakthroughs in research and development of new HIV prevention technologies, such as the microbicide gel Tenefovir, can reach the people who need them. Dr Shah and Mr Sidibé also considered how the two organizations could strategically work together to ensure HIV prevention efforts are evidence informed.
The United States of America is a leader in development of new HIV prevention technologies and is the largest donor to UNAIDS as well as the largest funder of aid towards the global AIDS response.
