Joyce Onwuka
The United Nations (UN) has sent a warning urging Governments to confront the structural inequities in external funding that undermine access to HIV services, close funding gaps and accelerate the expansion of HIV services in sustainable ways.
In the report, UN Secretary-General António Guterres delivers a clear message that the world has made historic gains against HIV, but that the gains are increasingly at risk unless governments urgently recommit to the global AIDS response.
The report was issued ahead of the UN General Assembly High-Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS taking place in New York on 22–23 June 2026.
“The global HIV response is at a critical juncture. Progress is real and measurable, but it is increasingly vulnerable to converging crises,” said Mr Guterres, citing declines in external funding, rising debt burdens, humanitarian emergencies and regression in human rights.
The Secretary‑General highlights that 31.6 million of the 40.8 million people living with HIV were on treatment in 2024, the highest number ever recorded and that AIDS‑related deaths have fallen by 54% since 2010, reaching their lowest level since the early 1990s.
The report outlines that countries in eastern and southern Africa—home to the majority of people living with HIV—have led the way. Seven countries in the region achieved the global 95‑95‑95 testing and treatment targets in 2024.
“These achievements are a shining testament of the progress to end AIDS when political leadership, community action and sustained investment come together,” said UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima.
However, the report underscores that the world is far off track from the 2025 targets set in the 2021 Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS. Some 9.2 million people still lack access to HIV treatment, around 630,000 people died of AIDS-related illnesses in 2024—double the 2025 target of 250,000 and 1.3 million people became infected with HIV in 2024—3.5 times the 2025 target of 370,000 by 2025.
The report outlines that progress remains uneven. New HIV infections have risen sharply in the Middle East and North Africa (up 94% since 2010) and have increased in Latin America as well as in eastern Europe and central Asia.
Adolescent girls and young women in sub-Saharan Africa continue to acquire HIV at three to four times the rate of their male peers.
Key populations and their partners account for 74% of new infections outside sub-Saharan Africa. The Secretary-General warns in the report that declines in external financing for health are projected to drop by up to 40%, with HIV prevention and community-led services most at risk. In western and central Africa, 90% of treatment funding comes from external donors. Prevention programmes in sub-Saharan Africa rely on 80% external funding.
“Without urgent action to close the funding gap, millions of lives are at stake,” said Ms Byanyima. “We cannot allow financial shocks, backlashes against human rights or political backsliding to reverse decades of progress.”
The report lays out some of the major opportunities to accelerate progress. Long-acting HIV prevention tools, including injectable HIV prevention medicines, are becoming more accessible, with generic versions expected at US$ 40 per person per year, however progress on roll-out is slow.
Community-led organizations, proven to improve testing, treatment adherence and viral suppression, must be protected, funded and integrated into country ownership plans. New national sustainability roadmaps, developed together with UNAIDS, in more than 30 countries are strengthening domestic ownership of HIV responses.
The UN Secretary-General calls on Member States to endorse bold new 2030 HIV targets in the Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS due to be adopted at the upcoming High-Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS. The targets will build on the 2025 commitments and aim to ensure continued progress towards the goal of ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030 and sustaining it into the future.
“The pathway to end AIDS by 2030 exists and remains open,” concludes Mr Guterres. “But only if we act together.”
In response, UNAIDS urges all governments to use the upcoming High-Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS to recommit to ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030, to protect and expand funding for HIV prevention, treatment and community-led services particularly by increasing domestic resources for HIV, to remove punitive laws and policies that fuel stigma and block access to HIV services and to ensure equitable access to innovations, including long-acting HIV prevention and treatment.
“Ending AIDS is a political choice,” said Ms Byanyima. “With courage, solidarity and investment, we can finish the job.”
The report of the UN Secretary-General is an instrumental reference to inform negotiations by member states on the new Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS in the lead up to the High-Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS on 22-23 June 2026.