Thank you, Madame Chair.
The United States is committed to helping the world end the AIDS epidemic as a public health threat by 2030. Partnership is a cornerstone of our efforts. UNDP and UNFPA are critical partners as Cosponsors of the UNAIDS Joint Programme. Addressing prevention, testing and treatment, human rights and stigma is fundamental to meeting the new 2025 targets of the Global AIDS Strategy. This strategy puts focusing greater emphasis on removing societal and legal impediments to service delivery, and on linking or integrating the provision of HIV services.
As the 2021 Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS mobilizes the global community, PEPFAR’s new strategy aims to ensure that by 2025 all countries it supports have made significant gains towards tackling societal challenges that impede progress in achieving the global 10-10-10 targets. That includes decreasing the number of countries with punitive laws that target key populations, reducing stigma and discrimination that undermine effective response, and fighting gender-based violence that put adolescent girls and young women at increased risk of HIV. UNDP and UNFPA are critical partners in reaching these targets.
To have an effective HIV/AIDS response, science and data dictate that we must acknowledge the centrality of comprehensive sexuality education and recognize sexual orientation and gender identity in the provision of services which will support ending transmission. HIV prevention and treatment programs that do not recognize the diversity of populations and their unique needs will not successfully curb the spread of HIV infection.
The UNAIDS joint programme is essential. The Global Fund is essential. Money without technical policy and advocacy will not yield more people on treatment, more infections averted, or human rights restored and preserved. These institutions are as necessary to one another as they are to the countries they support.
We reiterate that it is imperative that the Joint Programme be fully funded – at the level that allows it to support countries and communities to achieve the targets in the Global AIDS
Strategy. As we continue to demonstrate leadership, we ask that you to do the same to help ensure that we meet our jointly agreed goals.
Thank you.
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