In Washington, there seems to be a general agreement among lawmakers that the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief cannot last forever. That is the $110 billion program that has saved the lives of 25 million people living with HIV.
After more than 22 years, lawmakers at a National Security, Department of State, and Related Programs Subcommittee meeting Tuesday made it clear that they wanted to see governments take more responsibility for funding their own response. Or potentially seek out other sources.
It now becomes a question of how fast that transition takes place and how to effect it in a way that doesn’t undo decades of progress. If that’s the goal, then the Trump administration definitely doesn’t have the right approach. Here in Uganda, the freeze on foreign funding has left many PEPFAR programs suspended, despite a waiver that allows the resumption of lifesaving treatment and a few other initiatives.
Instead, on Tuesday, experts presented an idea of developing compacts with governments that would slowly ease them off of PEPFAR and into a more sustainable future.
Read: PEPFAR at crossroads — lawmakers debate future of global AIDS program