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US aid funding cuts create confusion, put HIV prevention at risk, says UNAIDS
The US pause in foreign assistance funding has created “a lot of confusion” in community HIV prevention work, despite the waiver issued for HIV/AIDS programmes, the UN agency to combat AIDS (UNAIDS) said on Friday.
The waiver allows the continuation or resumption of “life-saving humanitarian assistance” including HIV treatment. That means 20 million people living with HIV who depend on US aid for their treatment can continue to receive medication. “That’s 20 million out of the 30 million people living with HIV in the world,” said Christine Stegling, Deputy Executive Director of UNAIDS, at a scheduled press briefing in Geneva.
The HIV global response is heavily dependent on funds from the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR); it finances 70 per cent of the overall AIDS response and directly supports more than 20 million people living with HIV.
Since its creation in 2003, PEPFAR has saved more than 26 million lives by investing in critical HIV prevention, treatment, care and support programs in 55 countries, according to UNAIDS.
Nevertheless, “there is a lot of confusion on the ground especially at the community level on how the waiver will be implemented”, Ms. Stegling reported, pointing to disruption of treatment services. Transport services and community health workers are also still impacted by the US funding pause, according to UNAIDS.
Drop-in centres at risk
The agency highlighted that the pause in US assistance to community programmes would lead to the closure of many drop-in health centres and the termination of outreach workers’ contracts, effectively depriving vulnerable groups of support.
The biggest interruption will be to community health services which have been crucial in the success of the fight against HIV, according to UNAIDS. In Ethiopia 5,000 public health worker contracts depend on US assistance. “All of these, in all regions of Ethiopia, have been terminated, as well as 10,000 data clerks, very important in Ethiopia”, added Ms. Stegling.
Thousands of individuals - women, young girls, and priority populations at higher risk of sexually transmitted infections - will no longer be able to access critical services, such as condom distribution, HIV testing, antiretroviral treatment, pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV prevention, screenings for tuberculosis or support to address gender-based violence.
UNAIDS is most concerned about the long-term impact of the US funding freeze on prevention of new HIV infections as most services are community-based, while national governments tend to focus on keeping people on treatment, rather than preventing new infections.
If the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) is not re-authorized between 2025 and 2029 and other resources were not found for the HIV response, “there would be a 400 per cent increase in AIDS death”, UNAIDS said. “That’s 6.3 million people, 6.3 million AIDS related deaths that will occur in the future”, Ms. Stegling told journalists.
UNAIDS says it will continue efforts to ensure that during the 90-day pause, all people affected by HIV continue to access life-saving services.
Ends
Story: “US aid funding cuts impact – UNAIDS” – Friday 07 February 2025
Speakers:
- Christine Stegling, UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director
TRT: 02’02”
SOURCE: UNTV CH
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 07 February 2025 - GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
Geneva Press briefing
SHOTLIST
- Exterior medium shot: UN flag alley.
- Medium shot of the podium with speakers at the press conference room.
- SOUNDBITE (English) Christine Stegling, UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director: “The waiver should mean that 20 million people living with HIV that depend on US aid for their treatment can continue their medication. That's 20 million out of the 30 million people living with HIV in the world.”
- Wide shot of the press conference room.
- SOUNDBITE (English) Christine Stegling, UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director: “Global AIDS response has been heavily dependent on US government funds, 70 per cent of all money for HIV comes from the US government of the global response.”
- Wide shot of the press conference room.
- SOUNDBITE (English) Christine Stegling, UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director: “There's still a lot of confusion, especially in communities, on how the waiver will be implemented. And we're seeing a lot of disruption of delivery of treatment services, especially at the community level.”
- Wide shot: journalists at the press conference room and control room at the back.
- SOUNDBITE (English) Christine Stegling, UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director: “We see that the biggest interruption will be on community health systems, which all of you know, have been at the center of our success to HIV. So, for example, in Ethiopia, we have 5,000 public health worker contracts that are funded by US assistance. And all of these in all regions of Ethiopia have been terminated, and 10,000 data clerks, very important in Ethiopia. So we continue monitoring and ensuring that people are on treatment.”
- Cutaway journalists in the press conference room.
- SOUNDBITE (English) Christine Stegling, UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director: “As UNAIDS, we estimate that if PEPFAR -US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)- wasn't re-authorized between 2025 and 2029 and other resources were not found for the HIV response, there would be a 400 per cent increase in AIDS death. That's 6.3 million people, 6.3 million AIDS related deaths that will occur in the future.”
- Close shot of journalists taking notes.
- Various shots of the press conference room.
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New data showing that rivers were at their lowest level for decades last year provides further evidence that the climate crisis is real and countries must act immediately to protect themselves from the increasing threat to communities and livelihoods, the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Thursday.
The key findings from WMO’s State of Global Water Resources 2025 report covering the hydrological cycle and extreme events in the five-year period to last year:
- 2025 was one of driest years for river discharge in 35 years
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Highlighting the long-term decline in the Earth’s freshwater storage and glacier melt, WMO Secretary-General Celeste Saulo explained that the planet’s water reserves used to act as a planetary “savings account” that absorbed the occasional dry season, avoiding a water crisis. “One of the central stories of the 2025 report is what is happening to that savings account? And the simple answer is that we are depleting it,” she told journalists in Geneva.
Groundwater reserves are equally stretched and have been in decline since 2014, WMO’s report states, with nearly two-thirds of monitored wells worldwide showing levels lower than the historical norm and indicating a shift “further toward deficit…not recovery”.
“At the same time, we are seeing more water-related disasters,” Ms. Saulo said, while also stressing that the currently strengthening El Niño “will increase the risk of drought in some areas, and flooding in others”.
Glaciers disappearing
In 2025, for the fourth consecutive year, every major glaciated region on Earth lost ice mass, leading to short-term hazards including floods and long-term water insecurity, according to WMO.
Responding to a question about whether the changing global water cycle might have contributed to the deadly Nepal-China flooding disaster, Ms. Saulo explained that melting ice and rock was just one factor in the chain of events that ultimately sent a massive and deadly wall of water and debris downstream on 26 August, killing at least 1,367 people.
“You asked if it could happen again? Absolutely; the problem in this region is that there’s 63,700 glaciers at the last count,” she told a Press Conference in Geneva. “Even if you’re looking with remote sensing with satellites at these glaciers, you might see some faults, you might see some slight shifting, that does not mean necessarily catastrophic collapse. So, in order to plan for this, it’s very, very difficult. But the international community is looking very hard at ways in which we can bring people together to solve some of these monitoring issues.”
Data indicates that glaciers shrank between 2023 and 2025 with cumulative losses of 1,400 gigatonnes of water – or about one third of annual fresh water needs.
Every major glacier region on Earth lost ice for the fourth consecutive year.
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Some regions with smaller glaciers such as Central Europe, the Caucasus, the western Canada and the United States may already have reached “peak water”, Mr. Jenkinson warned.
“After this point, the glacier gives less meltwater each year simply because there is less ice left to melt. That matters for every community downstream that relies on water during hot, dry summers,” he explained.
Narelle van der Wel, WMO’s Head of Cryosphere Monitoring, Predictions and Services, stressed that while some further glacier loss is unavoidable, the eventual scale of the decline is not predetermined.
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The report does not attribute every observed change to climate change alone. WMO says pressure on water resources and natural variability also contribute.
Mr. Jenkinson said governments need to prepare for “moving baselines” as historical patterns become less reliable.
“The situation 30 years ago is not where we are today,” he said. Countries, he added, need to prepare “for those changes that have really already arrived”.
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