24 September 2025, Johannesburg – The Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) and SECTION27 strongly oppose imminent plans to shut down UNAIDS, as announced by the United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres. Actively dismantling the only dedicated UN body coordinating the HIV response will have a devastating impact on the lives of millions of people living with and affected by HIV/AIDS and will undermine years of hard-fought gains in the HIV response.
The agency is already operating with reduced capacity as a result of massive cuts to country team staff. The announcement of closure comes after the decimation of global HIV funding in 2025, which has done unspeakable damage to the HIV response, putting millions of lives across the world at risk. This despite there being 1.3 million new HIV infections in 2024, and 630,000 AIDS related deaths according to the World Health Organisation.
“The victories of our struggle against AIDS have to be won again and again. We cannot take the recognition of the human rights of people for granted. Especially people using drugs, sex workers, and LGBTQIA+ communities. The rise of the right across the globe only proves this. We also cannot take continued political will or funding from our governments for granted, as witnessed with the overnight pull of funding from PEPFAR, the reprioritisation of funding from the Global Fund, and many funders globally shifting priorities to other areas. All this work from the first phase of the AIDS response must continue, and we must continue to support each other in it,” says Anele Yawa, TAC General Secretary.
Ritshidze – the world’s largest community-led monitoring system implemented by TAC – has already documented major disruptions in HIV services in South Africa following the PEPFAR cuts:
- Of 323 facilities monitored, 51% of facility staff reported reduced capacity after PEPFAR disruptions;
- Reduced staffing has led to longer waiting times in multiple districts – with 22% of public healthcare users surveyed saying waiting times had worsened;
- Easy opportunities to test for HIV and start people on treatment are being missed with 47% of people not on ART telling us they were not offered a test on the day of monitoring;
- Measures to make it easier for people to collect ARVs have paused or regressed in some districts: overall 9% fewer people reported getting a 3-month supply and 8% fewer reported using easier-to-access external pick-up points in communities;
- More reports of unfriendliness in the clinic – likely a result of increased pressures on the fewer staff in place;
- Facility staff report negative impact on viral load testing and routine clinical consultations, and fewer people living with HIV reported that staff explained their viral load test results – resulting in a reduction in treatment literacy levels.
“Closing UNAIDS now would undermine decades of progress, weakening global coordination of the HIV response at a critical stage of the HIV response, when the agency is expected to finalise the next five-year Global AIDS Strategy and agree on the 2030 targets. UNAIDS has been essential in ensuring accountability, mobilising resources, protecting the rights of members of key populations, and centering community leadership in the global fight against AIDS. Instead of “sunsetting” UNAIDS, the world must strengthen and fully fund it to finish the fight against AIDS,” says Sasha Stevenson, SECTION27 Executive Director.
For media interviews, please contact:
Ngqabutho Nceku Mpofu, Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) | +27 72 225 9675 | ngqabutho.mpofu@tac.org.za
Pearl Nicodemus, SECTION27 | +27 82 298 2636 | nicodemus@section27.org.za
Notes
After monitoring 323 facilities across 16 districts, Ritshidze will be releasing a series of State of Health reports in the coming weeks documenting how HIV and other services have been impacted by the PEPFAR disruptions. Follow www.ritshidze.org.za for more.
The United Nations Secretary General, in his UN80 progress report, titled “Shifting Paradigms: United to Deliver” set forth a new UN vision. This vision, geared towards realigning programmes envisaged the ‘sunset’ of UNAIDS. A two-phase process, ultimately aimed at closing UNAIDS.
https://www.tac.org.za/news/tac-and-section27-call-on-un-secretary-general-to-save-unaids/
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