Expanding needs, diminishing means - Mapping of trends in funding for social enablers in Southern and East Africa

By AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa

In 2016, world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly adopted a Political Declaration on Ending AIDS. Countries agreed to an urgent agenda to accelerate efforts towards ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030. As part of the Political Declaration, leaders committed to reach ten specific Fast-Track Targets, to be achieved by the end of 2020.

Four years later, 2020 has arrived, and according to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV and AIDS (UNAIDS), it appears unlikely that Fast-Track target of 6% of resources to be budgeted for social enablers has been met. UNAIDS states that key enablers of effective HIV responses remain neglected in dozens of countries across multiple regions, and this collective failure to invest sufficiently in comprehensive, rights-based HIV responses resulted in 3.5 million more HIV infections and 820 000 more AIDS-related between 2015 to 2020 than if the world was on track to meet its 2020 targets.