Partnerships in Peril: The UK’s Role in Ending AIDS as a Public Health Threat

Recent data from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria highlights the precarious state of global efforts to end AIDS by 2030. Despite significant progress over the past few decades – including a 57% reduction in AIDS-related deaths since 2010 – funding cuts and a rollback on human rights have marred the current environment.

The shift towards partnership-based approaches, as embodied by the Global Fund, has been instrumental in this progress. This model brings together different strengths and resources to achieve more than individual countries could alone. Organizations like STOPAIDS and UK government officials, including Minister for International Development and Africa Kirsty McNeill, have championed this approach.

McNeill’s framing of partnerships as a necessary shift from hierarchical forms of aid to a system based on solidarity resonates with advocates who have long promoted this approach. However, the reality on the ground tells a different story. Funding cuts in 2025 resulted in a 25% reduction in donor government funding for HIV, particularly devastating impacts on HIV prevention efforts and women, who account for six out of ten new acquisitions in sub-Saharan Africa.

The UK’s own ODA budget reduction to 0.3% last year raises concerns about a step back from international leadership in global health. This has real-world consequences: community-led organizations have seen their delivery and support reduced by up to 50%, while the rollback on human rights and criminalization of marginalized communities is increasing for the first time since UNAIDS began tracking these trends.

To address this crisis, we need a renewed commitment to partnership and community leadership, as well as sustainable funding. This means scaling up innovations like lenacapavir, a twice-yearly jab for HIV prevention, and continuing support for more self-reliant country responses. We must also make scientific and medical advances accessible to low- and middle-income countries.

The next few years will be critical in determining whether the UK stays on track to meet its goal of ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030. If past successes are any guide, it’s clear that this will require more than just rhetoric – it will demand action.

We must remember that ending AIDS has been declared achievable before. In 2002, when the UK co-founded the Global Fund, only 102,000 people had access to HIV treatment. Since then, progress has been made, but past successes have not guaranteed future outcomes.

The real challenge now is not just about scaling up existing efforts, but also addressing the systemic issues that have led to funding cuts and a rollback on human rights. This will require a fundamental shift in how we approach global health and development, prioritizing partnership, community leadership, and sustainable funding over short-term gains.

As the clock ticks down to 2030, it’s time for action – not just from the UK government, but also from other countries, organizations, and individuals committed to ending AIDS as a public health threat.