Review panel finds global AIDS agency hampered by failings. (United Nations Global Program on AIDS)

The global agency designed to combat AIDS is depicted in a confidential review as too rigid to adapt to local cultures, slow to meet urgent needs and ill-equipped to make best use of its experts. In the face of a widening epidemic, the review said, the agency has not done enough to encourage other organizations to help head off economic and social calamity.

"There is insufficient long-term thinking ... about the changing dynamics of AIDS," said a 60-page report on the U.N. Global Program on AIDS (GPA). The report praised much of the agency's work, including surveillance of the epidemic and technical support, but it urged more attention to patient care and to …