Interview - Agnès Binagwaho and Peter Piot

The intersections and overlaps between the work of foundations, national governments and multilateral agencies are complex and often contentious. But, as Peter Laugharn of the Bernard van Leer Foundation found when he talked to Agnès Binagwaho, head of the Rwandan national AIDS programme, and Peter Piot, Executive Director of UNAIDS, partnerships with foundations are a vital aspect of their work in fighting HIV/AIDS. Both Binagwaho and Piot stress the importance of foundations aligning their activities with the national efforts, but they also point to other valuable roles that foundations can play. ‘Thought leadership’, doing the ‘forward thinking about the next 10, 20, 25 years’, is one that Piot sets particular store by.