Looming funding shortfall could reverse global progress against AIDS, warns UNAIDS chief

The world risks reversing decades of progress in the fight against AIDS if urgent funding gaps aren’t addressed, UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima warned on Monday during a press conference at the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4).

Byanyima revealed that up to 4.2 million more AIDS-related deaths, including 300,000 children, could occur by 2029 if international funding continues to dwindle. In 2024 alone, AIDS claimed 630,000 lives.

“You can see that a pandemic that has been declining could be resurging again. The crisis is real,” she cautioned.

The UNAIDS chief stressed that the looming threat is tied to the potential loss of the world’s biggest donor, who currently provides 73% of all international AIDS response funding.

Calling for urgent structural reforms, Byanyima urged wealthy nations to support new financing models and policies that enable developing countries to raise their own resources. “We need rich countries to embrace debt justice, tax justice, intellectual property justice, and global public investment,” she said.

Without bold action, Byanyima warned, the world could witness 6.6 million new HIV infections by the end of the decade.