UNITAID should 'reinvent itself' to increase role in global health field

In this post in the Center for Global Development's (CGD) "Global Health Policy" blog, Victoria Fan, a CGD research fellow, and Rachel Silverman, a research assistant for the global health team at the center, examine the future of UNITAID. "Perhaps due to its relative obscurity and late entry to a crowded global health field, UNITAID has proactively worked to differentiate itself through a focus on commodities, market shaping, novel funding sources, and innovation," but, "as UNITAID celebrates its sixth birthday ..., it stands at a potential crossroads," they write. Fan and Silverman note that a five-year evaluation report on the future of UNITAID, commissioned by its Executive Board, is forthcoming, and they highlight a paper (.pdf) in which they "outline some contradictions and limitations of UNITAID's current approach." They write, "We hope that the imminent evaluation provides the impetus for UNITAID to turn inward and do something truly innovative: buck institutional inertia, change course as necessary, and reinvent itself as the solution to 2012's biggest global health challenges" (9/17).