Joint statement by FCAA, IPPF, and ILGA-World from the Kalavai Partnership
31 March 2025 - We call on policymakers, governments, and philanthropy to protect and expand HIV funding and not to turn their backs on vulnerable populations.
The world is at a crossroads in the fight against HIV. For decades, dedicated investments in HIV prevention, treatment, and care have saved millions of lives and helped stabilize communities. Yet today, these gains are at risk. Critical funding from the U.S. government and other donor nations is under threat, jeopardizing the very infrastructure that has driven progress.
In fact, new analyses published by amfAR and The Lancet demonstrate the catastrophic toll cuts to both the U.S. CDC Division of HIV Prevention and foreign aid from the US, the Netherlands, Britain, and other nations, predicting up to 2.9 million more HIV-related deaths before 2030 and essentially undoing all progress achieved since 2000.
This crisis no longer knows borders. Now is the time to act—before we lose ground that cannot easily be regained.
HIV Prevention Saves Lives—We Must Not Step Back
HIV prevention is one of the most cost-effective and impactful investments in global health. It reduces new infections, alleviates the burden on healthcare systems, and safeguards the well-being of vulnerable communities. U.S. government funding for global HIV programs has been a lifeline for communities disproportionately affected by HIV, including women and children, LGBTQ people, sex workers, and people who use drugs. Yet today, political and financial pressures threaten these programs, putting lives and progress in jeopardy.
HIV prevention includes a broad range of essential interventions:
- Access to PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis): A highly effective HIV prevention medication that significantly reduces the risk of transmission.
- Comprehensive sexual health education: Ensuring individuals have the knowledge and resources to protect themselves and their partners.
- Harm reduction services: Including needle exchange programs and opioid substitution therapy for people who use drugs.
- Access to condoms and lubricants: Fundamental tools in preventing the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.
- HIV testing and linkage to care: Early diagnosis and immediate access to treatment are key to preventing new infections and achieving viral suppression.
- Mother-to-child transmission prevention: Ensuring pregnant women living with HIV have access to antiretroviral therapy to protect their newborns.
HIV, Global Health Security, and Human Rights Are Inseparable
HIV prevention is not just about health — it is about global stability, economic resilience, and human rights.
Slashing funding for HIV programs weakens public health infrastructure, rolling back decades of hard-won progress and making people worldwide more vulnerable to other global health crises.
The fight against HIV is intrinsically linked to sexual and reproductive health and rights, women's health, and LGBTQ rights. For example, the lives of transgender individuals are even more at risk due to the reduction of health and human rights-based services as a result of anti-trans and anti-DEI Executive Orders.
Women and girls continue to bear a disproportionate burden of the HIV epidemic, and their health hangs in the balance in the wake of funding cuts. Every week, approximately 4,000 adolescent girls and young women contract HIV, the majority of whom live in sub-Saharan Africa. Pregnant women living with HIV require consistent treatment to prevent mother-to-child transmission, yet funding shortfalls place these essential services at risk. Without sustained investment, millions of women and newborns face heightened health risks, undermining global progress toward ending HIV.
Governments and donors must recognize that investing in HIV prevention is an investment in global health security. When we protect and strengthen HIV infrastructure, we also reinforce systems that respond to pandemics, reduce maternal mortality, and promote equity in healthcare.
A Call to Action: The Time to Step Up is Now
We have the medical tools - including the addition of long-acting injectables - to end HIV as a public health crisis. We just need the funding and leadership.
We call on policymakers in the U.S. government and donor governments worldwide to take urgent action:
- Sustain and increase funding for HIV prevention, treatment, and care. Public investment is essential to protect the communities most at risk and ensure that we don’t lose ground.
- Recognize the intersection of HIV with broader human rights issues. Supporting HIV programs also means protecting reproductive health, LGBTQ rights, and gender justice.
We also call on philanthropy to lean in, not out. Now is not the time for donors to retreat. The role of private philanthropy has never been more critical in safeguarding communities and mobilizing new resources to fill funding gaps. Every investment today saves lives tomorrow.
The Kalavai Initiative — a partnership of Funders Concerned About AIDS (FCAA), the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), Global Philanthropy Project (GPP), and ILGA World — urges all stakeholders to act with urgency. Lives are at stake. The time to protect and expand HIV funding is now.
Join Us in Taking Action
Policymakers, donors, and advocates: Stand with us to protect public health, human rights, and the future of HIV prevention. Together, we can ensure that decades of progress are not lost, and that every person — regardless of who they are or where they live — has access to the lifesaving care they deserve.
About the Kalavai Partners:
ILGA World is a worldwide federation of more than 2,000 organisations from over 170 countries and territories campaigning for the human rights of people with diverse sexual orientations, gender identities and expressions, and sex characteristics. https://ilga.org
The International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) is a global healthcare provider and a leading advocate of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) for all. Founded in 1952, it is now a movement of 150 member associations and collaborative partners with a presence in over 146 countries. https://www.ippf.org/
Funders Concerned About AIDS (FCAA) unites philanthropic leaders to pursue a shared vision of a world without AIDS. Through research, advocacy, and collaboration, we work to mobilize and grow funding for the ever-changing fight against HIV. https://www.fcaaids.org/
Global Philanthropy Project (GPP) is a collaboration of funders and philanthropic advisors working to expand global philanthropic support to advance the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) people in the Global South and East. https://globalphilanthropyproject.org/
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HIV and STIs