Biography

Anurita Bains

Associate Director, HIV/AIDS

Anurita Bains, Associate Director, HIV/AIDS

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Anurita Bains was appointed the UNICEF Associate Director, HIV/AIDS, in December 2022.

Bains oversees the global HIV response for children, adolescents, and pregnant women. She brings more than two decades of experience in driving programmatic excellence and nurturing partnerships to advance the rights of children and women. Her contributions to the global HIV response include leading teams at country, regional and global levels with UNICEF, the Global Fund, UNAIDS, and the Clinton Health Access Initiative.

Before this role, Bains was the UNICEF Representative in Lesotho, providing critical support to the government in the Covid-19 response and recovery plan, implementing climate-change programming, and mobilizing resources to reach adolescent girls and young women living with HIV.

From 2002-2007, at the height of the AIDS pandemic, Bains supported the work of Stephen Lewis in his role as the UN Envoy for AIDS in Africa by advocating for attention to and resources for the HIV response in Africa. Prior to her work with the UN Envoy, she lived and worked in South Africa, where she supported Nelson Mandela and Graça Machel as part of UNICEF’s Global Movement for Children and worked with the government of South Africa in their efforts to advance child rights.

She started her career as a journalist in Canada, where she was twice nominated for the National Magazine Awards.

Bains is a graduate of the University of Toronto in Canada and the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa. She is a Canadian national.

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