The Executive Director of UNAIDS, Winnie Byanyima, urged African leaders at the 23rd International Conference on AIDS and STIs in Africa (ICASA) in Accra, Ghana, to make the political choice to end AIDS by 2030. She emphasized that Africa, home to 19% of the world’s population, carries 65% of the global HIV burden, with more than half of the people waiting for treatment and new HIV infections occurring on the continent. Byanyima stressed that the tools, knowledge, and science needed to end AIDS are available, making the challenge primarily political rather than medical.
She highlighted that recent cuts to international HIV financing, growing debt burdens, and the erosion of human rights threaten the progress made in reducing HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths. UNAIDS is working with governments to mobilize domestic resources for HIV responses, develop sustainable financing roadmaps, advocate for debt relief for health, and implement regional initiatives such as the Accra Reset and African Union Roadmap to 2030.
Byanyima also warned that the rising backlash against human rights and gender equality is pushing people away from life-saving HIV services, noting that the number of countries criminalizing same-sex relationships has increased for the first time since UNAIDS began tracking. She called these laws colonial-era imports reinforced by global ideological movements and emphasized that protecting human rights is essential to protecting health, aligning with African values of Ubuntu.
The UNAIDS executive highlighted the potential of new long-acting HIV medicines, including injectable PrEP, to revolutionize prevention similarly to the treatment advances over the past three decades. She urged producers, including Gilead, to enable broader access through generic licensing in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, and called on governments and international partners to invest in equitable distribution of these innovations.
Looking further ahead, UNAIDS is advocating for investment in regional manufacturing and innovation. Byanyima praised the Global Fund for procuring first-line HIV treatment produced in Kenya, benefiting Mozambique, and welcomed the Global Coalition for Local and Regional Production, Innovation, and Equitable Access launched under Brazil’s G20 Presidency to address disparities in health technology access.
ICASA, held in Accra from 3–8 December 2025, brought together multilateral institutions, scientists, governments, and community-led organizations to strategize on ending AIDS by 2030 in Africa, fostering collaboration and maintaining momentum across the continent.
