Key facts
- UNAIDS chief Winnie Byanyima urged the U.S. to reconsider its decision to withdraw HIV/AIDS funding from South Africa.
- The U.S. State Department cited South Africa's failure to meet policy demands, including reducing partnership with Iran and ending Black Economic Empowerment policies.
- PEPFAR previously provided over $400 million annually to South Africa and paid salaries for approximately 15,000 health workers.
- South Africa has the world's largest number of people living with HIV, with approximately 8 million individuals.
- UNAIDS warned that funding cuts could lead to a rebound in HIV infections and reversals in progress against the disease.
Winnie Byanyima, the head of UNAIDS, expressed deep concern and sadness over the U.S. government's decision to initiate a phased drawdown of funding for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) in South Africa. She urged Washington to reconsider the move, warning that it could lead to loss of life and reverse decades of progress in the fight against HIV/AIDS in the country, which has the world's largest HIV-infected population.
The U.S. State Department stated that the decision was a response to South Africa's failure to make demonstrable progress on policy requests, including reducing its partnership with Iran, ending Black Economic Empowerment policies, and addressing "Kill the Boer" chants. The department also noted that South Africa is a middle-income country capable of supporting its own health programs, and that PEPFAR was not intended to be permanent.
Byanyima highlighted that PEPFAR previously provided over $400 million annually to South Africa and covered the salaries of approximately 15,000 health workers. She emphasized that while South Africa does not rely on U.S. funding for HIV drugs, the PEPFAR program contributed about 17% of the country's total HIV funding. She pointed to a broader trend of declining global development assistance and warned that recent funding cuts were already disrupting services, leading to a 22% drop in HIV testing in some high-infection-rate countries and a significant decrease in condom distribution, potentially causing a rebound in infections.
UNAIDS data indicates that approximately 8 million people in South Africa are living with HIV. Globally, 32.1 million of the roughly 40 million people living with the virus receive treatment, but 9 million still lack access to it. Byanyima stressed the importance of a planned transition for aid and the need to maintain momentum towards the goal of ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.