"WHO's Comprehensive Treatment Failure: Will We Learn the Real Lessons of 3 by 5?" American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research: Roger Bate of the American Enterprise Institute and Lorraine Mooney of Africa Fighting Malaria in an article on the World Health Organization's 3 by 5 Initiative -- which aimed to treat three million HIV-positive people in developing countries with antiretroviral drugs by December 2005 -- write that it "should be a cause for celebration that over 1.6 million people in the poorest parts of the world are now on antiretroviral treatment to halt the advance of HIV, but in a rush to improve access, mistakes have been made." According to the researchers, the initiative has some "[u]nusual features," including "a high-level acknowledgement of failure and a comprehensive, (partially) independent evaluation," which "vindicates criticisms of 3 by 5 made before and during the Initiative." According to the article -- which is the first in a series that examines field practice and policy "to find the good and the bad" in efforts to fight HIV/AIDS -- it is "imperative" that the global health community "re-evaluates what needs to be done" in the battle against the pandemic. The researchers conclude that the "U.N. system has the potential to play a useful, integral role in this process but has not, so far, shown itself to be worthy of a place at the table" (Bate/Mooney, AEI Working Paper, November 2006).