Winnie Byanyima (UNAIDS), on the General Assembly High-Level Meeting on HIV/AIDS - Press Conference

Alright, good afternoon. We are delighted to be joined by the Executive Director of UNAIDS, someone you know well, Winnie Byanyima. She is here because the General Assembly, as you know, is holding a high-level meeting on HIV/AIDS. And so Winnie, welcome and you have the floor.

Thank you very much, Stefan, and good afternoon, members of the Thank you for coming to listen to us. The United Nations General Assembly high-level meeting on AIDS kicked off this morning with the President of the General Assembly and the Deputy Secretary-General leading the opening session, and myself and a woman living with HIV as well as a scientist. The meeting is— this is the 5th high-level meeting on AIDS since 25 years ago when world leaders came together here at the United Nations for the first-ever UN General Assembly Special Session on a Health Crisis. 4 meetings, such meetings have happened, one every 5 years, and this is the 5th and last one before 2030, the goal of ending AIDS as a public health threat. So at this meeting, we— I told delegations that the world made a promise to stop AIDS. The world meeting here 25 years ago to stop AIDS, to ensure that all people in all countries in the world got treatment and prevention that they needed, that funds would be mobilized to enable every country to fight the disease, and that communities on the ground would lead and deliver services for their people. The Member States also agreed that the UN would continue to coordinate a global multi-sectoral response, and that is the part of the UN that I lead. I reminded delegations that 25 years ago, every 5 years, Member States have come back and recommitted and recommitted, and as a result, we have had progress up to this point. 32.1 million people are living healthy lives because they are on treatment. That's 32.1 out of 40 million people living with HIV. Tremendous progress that people are on treatment. I also reminded them that while the promise has been kept for 25 years now, that the progress achieved should not be confused with success. There are still 9 million people not on treatment, and our data— UNAIDS' data— shows that last year, 1.2 million people were newly infected. So therefore, the promise to end AIDS hasn't been realized, and I rallied countries to come together and agree an ambitious political declaration that they should sign off tomorrow where they make commitments. These commitments should be in these areas because they are the areas of— what we need to do to end AIDS. One, to commit to multilateralism and agree ambitious targets for the next 5 years. Multilateralism is at its weakest today. This is a great story of the success of multilateralism. I called on member states to assert that multilateralism is alive and well by passing an ambitious declaration. Secondly, that member states sustain international financing. Financing has collapsed. Last year alone, OECD report of last year showed that 2025 international ODA dropped by 23%, the largest drop ever. That's a sudden drop, and that has hit hardest the high-burdened, low-income countries that have depended very much on development assistance. So I called on Member States to sustain international financing as countries mobilize their own domestic resources. Our records show that 52 countries last year stepped up and increased their domestic financing for the HIV response. Bonds. There are regional efforts to find, to identify resources to achieve health sovereignty. So these have to be matched by continued international financing as the domestic resources increase. I called on member states to protect the rights of people living with HIV. To be able to reach lifesaving services. The pushback against human rights, against gender equality, the closing of civic space, disabling communities from serving their people is a big threat to the gains we have made today. I called on member states to respect the rights of people living with HIV and those at risk, and those are gay men and men who have sex with men, sex workers, transgender people, people who inject drugs, and sex workers, and prisoners, that their rights, their rights to access services, their human rights must be respected for us to beat this disease. I called on them to free the space, civic space, so that communities can lead services for their people, and lastly, that they spur the science so that innovations reach everyone who needs them. The Brazilian delegate summed it up for me on the science when she said, "Innovations are Innovations without access are not innovations. They are an injustice. Innovations must reach everybody who needs them. The access to medicines is a critical issue. These are the things I called on member states to ensure are well— the commitments are well entrenched in the political declaration,, and if we do these things, we can end AIDS. Thank you very much. I can take your questions.

Thank you. Please, Al Jazeera.

Hi, Madam. Thank you so much for this very important briefing. My name is Gabriel Elizondo from Al Jazeera English. I know many of my colleagues— it's a busy day— are watching this briefing from their offices intently. On behalf of the UN Correspondents Association, we also want to thank you for holding this important briefing as well. Two questions. One is, you mentioned that there are 52 countries that have stepped up funding, correct? How much is that helping, given the fact that the US has curtailed so much of its funding? Has it built a little bit of— has it closed the gap a bit, or is there still quite— a big gap? And secondly, what is the one concrete outcome that you most hope to come out of the meeting this week? Thank you.

Thank you for that question. First, I need to clarify that the cuts in financing in international assistance are not cuts from one government. We have seen a sharp decline in development financing from a range of donors. Almost all— not all, but many of the traditional donors, European, North American, have been cutting their ODA. That's one. And that these cuts have been rapid— rapid has to be underlined because it was never expected that external assistance would continue to finance the HIV response, but a planned transition from external assistance to domestic financing would be expected. So, yes, the countries have not said we are going to lie down and die unless external help is here. We are recording and 52 countries have increased their domestic financing, this goes some way to fill the gap but does not completely fill the gap for most of them. Secondly, they have done more than that. Many of them are being very innovative about integrating the HIV response into the broader health system, achieving some cost efficiencies. So these are also some of the steps being taken to ensure that the response remains funded. But overall, what has been taken away is much bigger than what is coming in. My call is that, please, do not take money away because you're taking lives away. Have a planned transition where countries step up as external aid is taken away. The last point about my biggest wish. It is so common in the media to be asked, "What is the one thing?" There's never one thing, but let me try to give you two, because there are two big threats to the gains we have made. Our recent report, we say that progress is continuing, but there is increasing fragility of the response and there are two big threats. One is this rapid decline of development financing. I'm calling for continued development assistance as domestic resources are. So important that Global Fund is fully funded, that the resources match the need, The American bilateral program is welcomed back and should continue and increase resources. America has always been the biggest contributor and continues to be. We want them to continue. So the second big issue is one on rights, to really— for member states to protect the rights of the people who are living with HIV and those who are vulnerable. Our record since we started tracking human rights of people living with HIV tell us that for, for the first time, instead of continuing to decriminalize same-sex relationships, we are seeing a turn in the wrong direction. 2 countries last year enacted criminal laws against same-sex relationships. Another country this year made its law harsher for same-sex relationships. And we also see more laws closing civic space for communities to lead services. My call to member states is Push back against the push back. Protect human rights, protect women's rights and gender equality, sexual and reproductive health and rights. That will guarantee success. Those are my two things.

Sherwin, then Noreen.

Sherwin Briceby, South African Broadcasting. Thank you for your interventions today and your briefing this afternoon. Your reaction, please, to the announcement by the US State Department that there will be a phased withdrawal of PEPFAR withdraw funding to South Africa. Of course, South Africa has the highest prevalence of HIV anywhere in the world, around 8 million people that are infected with HIV in South Africa. I'm sorry, I'm getting a frown, so I think the numbers are right. What's your reaction to the US decision to withdraw funding here?

I'm sad about that because South Africa has the largest HIV the highest number of people living with HIV, 8 million people living with HIV. It also has the most ambitious program for HIV, delivering antiretroviral treatment to 6 of those 8 million people and fighting to put all of them on treatment. It has a very ambitious prevention program and the United States PEPFAR program was giving South Africa support of up to 17% of its total funding for HIV. South Africa funds most of its HIV response, but that 17% was important too because it was supporting South Africa to deliver services for communities, for communities to deliver to their people, to the most vulnerable people. So taking it away is taking away life-saving support from the most vulnerable people. So that is sad, and I would ask the United States to reconsider their position.

Thank you.

Noreen. Thank you very much, ma'am. My name is Noreen Hussein with IPS News. So far, you've talked about the role that member states can play in addressing the ongoing crisis. I'm wondering if you could also expand on what role the what role international organizations can play, especially UNAIDS, as we know that part of that UNAIDS is also about to go through a major transition process under the UNAIDS initiative where some of its core— its mandates and responsibilities will sort of be— will now be sort of directed to other UN entities. So moving forward in the next 4 years, What role can international organizations, including the UN and the entities that will assume some of the responsibilities of UNAIDS, what role can they play? What role must they play going forward?

UNAIDS, the United Nations Joint Programme on AIDS, is a partnership of 11 UN entities —brought together by a Secretariat that I lead. Like other parts of the United Nations, we have been hit hard by the rapid cuts in development assistance. The call of the Secretary-General to reform, to transform the Joint Programme is in that context of changing the arrangements of the Joint Programme and making them fit for a future of less funding. That is the aim. The aim is not to take away the mandate of the UN to fight AIDS, to lead and coordinate, but to rearrange the joint programme so that it can fit in a smaller envelope for the future. The way we are doing this is to consolidate the Secretariat to pass over some of its functions that it has been performing to other parts of the UN, to some of the entities that make the joint program. This is an ongoing process. There's a working group that is designing a plan for such a transition. We expect that at the end of the year, in October, this plan will be adopted by the board and implementation of the plan will begin next year. What I foresee is that there will continue to be a small hub that carries the core functions of leadership, of coordination, of accountability, of driving the world behind ambitious targets, and with co-sponsors continuing to play their role in each sector. WHO on testing and treating, UNICEF on children and HIV/AIDS, gender equality under UNW— so I'm seeing a much smaller but more focused, with more clarified roles for each part of the joint program.

China Central Television. Go ahead. Your microphone is not on.

There we go. Jerry Cao for the China Central Television. Does the UN have an estimate—

I'm struggling to hear you. A little louder, please.

No, it's on, but just speak a little louder.

Oh, okay. Does the UN have an estimate on how many additional HIV infections as related to that could result if the current funding cuts continue?

That is a good question. As a result of the cuts, you're saying how do we estimate new infections? Okay. So far, you see, HIV is a disease where What happens now, its impact is tracked in data much later, but we are seeing the early signs of serious reversals in our progress. For example, we're seeing that 22% of— I don't want to make a mistake here. Yeah. That HIV testing, testing in the high burden countries has fallen by 22%. That means there are many people out there who do not know they are HIV positive and who are continuing to transmit because they are not on treatment. So when, when testing drops so suddenly, we can expect that down the road we are going to start picking up a figure of higher new infections, higher numbers of new infections. We are also seeing, for example, condom distribution, a major way of prevention for men, 90% drop in some countries, 90% drop. That tells you that there are many people out there having unsafe sex and therefore you can expect new infections to increase in, in subsequent years when we pick up the data. So, yes, we do not have a figure, we do not have an estimate for the longer term, but we do see in our data for this year the signs that we're going to have new infections. The trend that has been going down may now reverse and start rising. I hope that answers your question. Thank you.

I also have a question for Steph. What message does the Secretary-General have for the major donor countries that are reducing their contributions?

Reverse and give.

Very good answer. It was so quick. Winnie, thank you very much. We wish you success with the conference for all your wishes.

Thank you. Thank you, Stefan, for arranging this for us.