Post Excerpt UK civil society and community statement on UNAIDS and UN80 Report As UK based civil society, community-led organisations and individuals we express our deep concern and opposition to the proposal in the Report of the UN Secretary-General for the UN80 Initiative to ‘sunset UNAIDS by the end of 2026’. We urge the UK, and all Member States, to oppose this premature closure that would undermine the global HIV response. UNAIDS should only merge with WHO when we have reached or are very close to reaching the global target of ending AIDS as a public health threat.
Prior to this year, significant progress had been made towards the Sustainable Development Goal of ending AIDS by 2030, reducing the number of AIDS-related deaths by 51% since 2010 and increasing the number of people accessing antiretroviral treatment (ART) from 7.7 million in 2010 to 31.6 million in 2024.
But there is still much to do and the global HIV response is now facing an unprecedented crisis due to funding cuts impacting millions of lives and jeopardising our goal of ending AIDS.
If we are to get back on track, UNAIDS will be critical. In the midst of this global crisis for the HIV response, UNAIDS:
provides the only global strategy and coordination framework specifically designed to end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030 and it holds all nations to account for their commitments and responsibilities
- provides the most complete set of global programmatic, epidemiological and financial data that drives the HIV response and ensures communities are at the centre of the response.
- plays a leading role supporting national sustainability plans and ensuring national HIV responses are inclusive and multisectoral. It guides countries through the transition from donor dependency to sustainable domestic HIV programmes, ensuring that progress is maintained and scaled up, particularly for the most marginalised and vulnerable populations.
- plays a critical role in advancing equity and inclusion. Through its convening power and advocacy, particularly at national level, it highlights where inequalities are the greatest and ensures the voices of communities are at the centre of policy and programme design and delivery to make the global HIV response more inclusive.
- convenes and unites the efforts of 11 UN agencies on HIV and complements other key global health institution partners such as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and malaria and Unitaid.
- is the only UN entity that has community and civil society Board members who have been instrumental in shaping the upcoming Global AIDS Strategy.
With a budget representing only 1% of total HIV response resources that can be used to leverage over $20 billion of investments, UNAIDS is a critical element of the multilateral system.
UNAIDS is ahead of broader UN reform – it has already reduced its staff by half following US cuts and has run a High Level Panel that produced a new operating model for the Joint Programme. It already has a thought-through and more responsible plan to merge with WHO in 5 years in 2030 when sufficient progress has been made in the HIV response. A premature closure of UNAIDS would create dangerous fragmentation and duplication as multiple agencies scramble to fill the void, undermining rather than optimising effectiveness at the critical moment when coordinated transition to sustainable domestic HIV programmes is most needed.
A 2026 sunsetting of UNAIDS would abandon millions of the world’s most vulnerable people at a critical moment in the HIV response. The timing could not be worse: just as new HIV prevention innovations capable of decisively changing infection trajectories are becoming available, and as over 40 million people living with HIV require continued access to life-saving treatment.
We share the call of the NGO Delegation to the UNAIDS Programme Coordinating Board that protecting UNAIDS is also critical for the rights and health of the communities most impacted by the AIDS pandemic, including men who have sex with men, transgender people, sex workers, people who use drugs and people in prison and other enclosed settings, at a time where rights are under attack.
- We urge the UK, who is a long-term partner of UNAIDS and a member of the Programme Coordinating Board, to:
- Maintain its strong leadership by opposing any premature sunsetting of UNAIDS before 2030 and backing the UNAIDS High-Level Panel’s responsible merger plan with WHO when sufficient progress has been made.
Honour its recent financial commitments to UNAIDS and ensure sufficient ongoing annual contributions and political support to enable UNAIDS to continue leading the global effort to end AIDS by 2030. Signatories:
STOPAIDS, Tackle, Harm Reduction International, Health Poverty Action (HPA), Find Your Feet, MARCH (Maternal Adolescent Reproductive & Child Health, LSHTM), Good Health Community Programmes Kenya, Institute of Development Studies (IDS) UK, Marge Berer, (Former Editor and author, Reproductive Health Matters), International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), The Making Waves Network, Frontline AIDS, Salamander Trust, TBEC, TB Alert