LocationsSolidarity and sustainability are needed to end AIDS by 2030
Overcoming disruption: Communities on the frontline
November 26, 2025
Science, community action and international solidarity have delivered powerful breakthroughs in HIV response. Abrupt funding cuts threaten to reverse this progress.
Photo: UNDP Sudan/Giles Clarke
HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths have declined to their lowest levels in over three decades. Science is delivering powerful breakthroughs like lenacapavir, a highly effective prevention tool that could transform HIV responses.
Yet abrupt funding cuts have imperiled progress, threatening another 4 million lives by 2029. With a quarter of donor funding for HIV going to civil society and community networks in 2023, community services—often serving marginalized people—face grave uncertainty. Meanwhile, conflicts and barriers, such as criminalization, discrimination and stigma, still undermine AIDS responses.
In the face of crises and disruptions, communities are overcoming obstacles, working in lockstep with governments, UNDP, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and other partners.
Amidst conflict in Sudan, Manal counsels over 1,700 people on HIV treatment in Port Sudan—nearly a sixth of people treated nationally—and delivers medicines to rural areas with the Sudan Family Planning Association. In Kassala, Hanadi helps locate people without treatment and leads volunteers at the Association of People Living with HIV to reach people displaced by fighting.
Manal, who lives with HIV, works with the Sudan Family Planning Association to support people with access to free HIV treatment, testing and counseling during Sudan’s conflict.
Photo: UNDP Sudan
Their efforts are remarkable. Two and a half years since war began in April 2023, an estimated 96 percent of people treated for HIV before the conflict were able to maintain treatment.
“Love didn’t stop, life didn’t stop. As long as I’m here, I’ll keep supporting people living with HIV.”
— Manal, HIV treatment adherence supporter, Port Sudan Hospital, Sudan
At risk of being left behind, communities facing discrimination are securing their own health and well-being.
In Bolivia, OTRAF Bolivia, Association of Transgender and Transexual Women of Santa Cruz and Trans Feminist Movement manage four peer-led and volunteer-run Casas Trans, in coordination with the Ministry of Health and Sport. These community spaces provide comprehensive health, legal and psychosocial services to transgender people facing discrimination, including referrals to HIV services. As of October 2025, 264 people confirmed their HIV diagnoses and 69 people accessed treatment, helping close gaps in treatment coverage.
Facing discrimination, many LGBTIQ+ people are prevented from accessing healthcare, including HIV treatment. With its peer-led model, Casas Trans in Bolivia serve transgender people without prejudice.
Photos: UNDP Bolivia/Nagera Vicente (left)
UNDP Bolivia/Richard Arana (right)
UNDP Bolivia/Richard Arana (right)
“In this office they called me by my name. I didn't have to explain why my ID said anything else.”
— Carola, community member at the Casa Trans, Santa Cruz, Bolivia
In Zimbabwe, GALZ, Sexual Rights Centre and National AIDS Council are supporting key populations to access HIV prevention services, reaching 93 percent of the estimated population of men who have sex with men and providing 7,028 men with pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) in 2024. Ongoing work to deliver lenacapavir promises to bolster efforts.
UNDP works with countries and communities to achieve and sustain good health through inclusive laws, policies and institutions. UNDP’s #WeBelongAfrica works with the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs and Intersex Community of Zimbabwe on the legal recognition and protection of intersex people, including from discrimination.
A key partner to Zimbabwe’s national HIV response, GALZ supported community mobilization, social media outreach and referral networks to reach 10,000 men who have sex with men in 2024.
Photo: UNDP Zimbabwe/Joyous A.L. Begisen
“We hope to empower parliamentarians to make informed decisions and enact protective laws and policies that support effective HIV and health programmes.”
— Mojalifa Ndlovu, Chairperson of the Key and Vulnerable Populations Forum, Zimbabwe
In Pakistan, 10 community legal aid officers offer free legal services to people facing HIV-related discrimination, including by employers and law enforcement. Prioritizing high-risk districts, the Access to Justice initiative builds trust and connects people with pro bono legal services, healthcare and police and has engaged 10,000 people in awareness sessions and assisted 3,100 people since 2023. Sustained funding could deepen the connection between communities and the justice sector to advocate for inclusive laws and policies that promote and protect health.
Shehla survived intimate partner violence and contracted HIV from her former husband, who struggled with injected drugs use. She is one of thousands who accessed legal assistance in Pakistan to start a new life.
Photos: UNDP Pakistan/Muhammad Omer Hayat
“For the first time, someone listened to me without judgment. The legal aid officers heard my story and told me: you have rights. Those words gave me strength.”
— Shehla, a woman living with HIV and a survivor of gender-based violence
Facing financial constraints, countries and communities are finding ways to sustain life-saving services.
In Morocco, OPALS Maroc is mobilizing funds from the Ministry of Health and Social Protection and Rabat-Salé-Kénitra Regional Council to expand access to HIV testing and treatment. The new initiative marks a significant step as Morocco works to sustain services and transition from donor assistance for HIV programmes.
With domestic financing, OPALS Maroc, supported by Dr. Boutaina Drissi Alami Machichi on the left, is scaling up sexual and reproductive health awareness and testing, access to HIV treatment and cervical cancer screening in Morocco.
Photos: OPALS Maroc
“Besides strengthening services, the grant represents a collective achievement. We gained the government’s commitment to healthcare access—a fundamental right for all, including often stigmatized people.”
— Dr. Boutaina Drissi Alami Machichi, Secretary-General of OPALS Maroc
Known as social contracting, the approach is driving the scale-up of HIV and harm reduction services. With more investment, Morocco could avert over 4,500 AIDS-related deaths and generate US$532 million in benefits by 2050—a US$18 return for every dollar spent.
Nadia Gomez works at Generación Trans, a beauty salon and social enterprise at the Casa Trans Pamela Valenzuela in La Paz, Bolivia, which provides additional financing for centre operations.
Photo: UNDP Bolivia/Richard Arana
For over four decades, civil society and communities have overcome adversity to shape and power HIV responses, often providing a lifeline to those left furthest behind. But even with domestic and innovative financing, global solidarity is needed to bridge critical gaps, and remove legal and policy barriers, which waste money and cost lives. Sustained investment in community-led services is vital to protect progress made, build health resilience and end AIDS as a public health threat for everyone, everywhere, by 2030.
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