GENEVA/JOHANNESBURG, 13 June 2025–The Executive Director of UNAIDS, Ms. Winnie Byanyima, today concluded her four-day mission to South Africa. The visit aimed at gaining a deeper understanding of the impact of the global funding cuts on the HIV response in the country. It also served to strengthen partnerships with government and civil society, and reaffirm UNAIDS’ support for South Africa’s national HIV response, including the recently-launched Close the Gap campaign—a push to ensure an additional 1.1 million people in the country have access to life-saving treatment.

“I came here to listen, to understand and to support South Africa, the country with the highest burden of HIV,” said Ms Byanyima. “Around 7.8 million people in the country are living with HIV, the highest number in the world. UNAIDS is supporting the government to ensure that HIV prevention efforts are scaled up, that all people in need have access to treatment, and that South Africa can end AIDS as a public health threat by 2030.”

During her mission, Ms Byanyima’s engagements included a community-led monitoring site visit to the Itireleng Community Health Centre in Soweto to monitor HIV service delivery. She also met with civil society organisations and held high-level engagements with President Cyril Ramaphosa and Health Minister, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi. Ms Byanyima commended South Africa for its continued political and financial leadership in its efforts to fill funding gaps to end AIDS.

While she noted South Africa’s significant financial contribution to the country’s HIV response, 76% which is funded from domestic sources. Ms Byanyima saw firsthand how the loss of US funding (which was at 17%) is affecting HIV service delivery at the community level. She heard how more than 8000 health workers have lost their jobs, as have a further 1400 data capturers, who supported with tracing and tracking patients in communities. Twelve non-governmental run clinics have also closed.

Ms Byanyima praised both the government and civil society for their leadership and resilience amidst the funding cuts.

“In Soweto I saw what the disruptions mean for the country. It is being felt by people most affected by HIV, including adolescent girls and young women. We are now seeing a bigger gap in HIV prevention services,” said Ms Byanyima. “But I am very pleased to hear some of the efforts that are being made by the government to fill that gap. I learned about the key populations whose medical files are being transferred to other health facilities where they can get treatment when their usual clinics had to close. I am seeing real efforts by the government, including the investment of the new resources into the national HIV response. This is very encouraging.”

Ms Byanyima’s visit coincided with the G20 Health Working Group meeting in Johannesburg. She reiterated her support to South Africa’s leadership of the G20, to advance international action to enable local production of medicines on every continent and to tackle the resource constraints on health faced by low- and middle -income countries through debt reduction and tax cooperation. The UNAIDS-convened international expert group, The Global Council on Inequality, AIDS, and Pandemics, is helping inform the deliberations of the G20.

South Africa’s leadership of the G20 this year is critical for global public health, as it works to tackle the inequalities that are holding back progress. UNAIDS is working in partnership with South Africa to support the G20 to enable access to medicines, expand fiscal space, and on addressing the social determinants of health.

UNAIDS

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) leads and inspires the world to achieve its shared vision of zero new HIV infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths. UNAIDS unites the efforts of 11 UN organizations—UNHCR, UNICEF, WFP, UNDP, UNFPA, UNODC, UN Women, ILO, UNESCO, WHO and the World Bank—and works closely with global and national partners towards ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals. Learn more at unaids.org and connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.